Focus on this artwork and explore the Attribution.
The statuette was attributed to Leonardo in 1916 by Simon Meller, the curator at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, due to its similarities to Leonardo's drawings. Mária Aggházy summarised the attribution in the 1970s and 80s beyond the comparisons to Leonardo's drawings, by saying that the rider's composure matches the reported personality of the young to-be-king Francis I of France, that there is no armour or saddle as is suitable for French jousting, that the figure is wearing a royal-style crown ornament, and that the statuette was depicted in later French artwork for jousting.The attribution has been widely accepted, more seriously than other sculpture attributions to Leonardo, and according to art historian Martin Kemp, is well supported. There is, however, some doubt, especially on the rider.
In the 1920s, following Meller's attribution, a dozen art scholars published their opinions about the statuette. Half of them, including Edmund Hildebrandt, agreed with Meller's attribution, and the rest thought it was a later work by one of Leonardo's pupils. L.H. Heydenreich wrote in 1954 that the statuette proves Leonardo's competency for casting in bronze. In more recent publications, Martin Kemp noted the unusual lack of attention to detail on the horse's anatomy, which others have echoed due to the extreme bending of the horse's hind legs and a perceived lack of energy typical to Leonardo's other works. The quality of the surface modelling suggests that the bronze cast may have been made by one of Leonardo's pupils from a wax model of his, as in one of Leonardo's worksheets he had made a note to himself to "make a little one of wax about four inches long" next to horse sketches. Kenneth Clark, Martin Kemp, and Carlo Pedretti all suggested that the note refers to the Budapest statue. Some believe the statuette is merely based on one of Leonardo's sketches. Giovanni Francesco Rustici has also been considered as the sculptor.Technical evidence from a 2009 investigation organised by the National Gallery of Art suggests that the statuette was cast near or after Leonardo's death in 1519 using the lost wax technique. The composition of the metal alloy is identical in all the parts of the statuette, apart from the modern pin used to attach the rider.
Equestrian statuettes with only slight variations to the Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior have been discovered over the years. They are often referred to by their location. Particularly the Rearing Horse at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in the Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland, have been considered as being by an early follower of Leonardo, such as Leone Leoni. The three were exhibited for the 1969 Congress of the Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art as "Horses of Leonardo da Vinci" with reservation on their attribution. For repeat exhibitions in the US in 2009–2010, the National Gallery of Art investigation confirmed the New York and Limerick horses to be the result of techniques and alloys available only since the 19th century.Another horse, a mirror image of the New York statuette with the horse facing left, was in London in the collection of art critic Pierre Jeannerat (d. 1983). The London statuette was exhibited in 1961–62 in London, Amsterdam and Florence as Leonardo's, but has since been attributed to sculptors after the 17th century artist Jan de Bisschop. A similar statuette in the Speed Art Museum in Kentucky was once associated with this group of statuettes, but has since been attributed to Rustici or Willem Danielsz van Tetrode.The provenance of the rider is disputed due to its size and lesser quality of work. Because the current attachment of the rider is modern, the horse lacks a saddle, and the rider is of smaller scale than the horse, the National Gallery of Art considered the possibility that the rider is a later addition. In their 2009 exhibit, the Rearing Horse was for the first time displayed separately from the Mounted Warrior, which was placed beside the horse. The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, holds a horseman statuette that shares the crude features of the Budapest rider. Titled Warrior, it has been attributed to Leone Leoni or one of his followers, and may be based on the same model as the Mounted Warrior.
National Gallery of Art Aggházy Willem Danielsz van Tetrode Leonardo da Vinci Giovanni Francesco Rustici Budapest Museum of Fine Arts Francis I of France Hermitage Museum Martin Kemp Carlo Pedretti lost wax technique Leone Leoni Clark Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art Pedretti Kentucky bronze Speed Art Museum jousting Hunt Museum L.H. Heydenreich Edmund Hildebrandt Jan de Bisschop Kenneth Clark Metropolitan Museum of Art