2)2 THE HORSE. 



Louvre, affords a subject, in his race horses, going- at the 

 utmost speed and having the appearance of flight. 



The artist is a great amateur of horses and one well- 

 acquainted with their exterior. But on a comparison 

 with painters of the same subjects, both predecessors and 

 contemporaries, he will be found to have committed the 

 error of unduly extending the anterior members of his 

 racers ; the foot goes beyond the nostrils (A, fig. 16). 

 On the previous page I have re-sketched (B, fig. 17) 

 Gericault's horse, making the small corrections demanded 

 by nature, so that the extension of the members be 

 in conditions more conformable with the truth. 



4. AIRS DE MANEGE MODIFICATION OF GAITS. 



We have dealt with what propels the animal to the 

 fore, in a desired direction, without any exclusion of the 

 possibility of animating it, of imparting grace to it, or of 

 collecting it by balancing the gait and throwing the centre 

 of gravity to the rear. 



In this last case, the impulsion of the withers lifts the 

 body up instead of pushing it, this being obtained by the 

 exaggerated flexion of the neck and by the head coming 

 to a vertical position, the chin almost joining the chest. 

 The piaffer (pawing) and the gallopade afford proofs of 

 this and so far, may be said, up to the present time to 

 furnish the sole positions of equestrian statues, besides 

 the stationary attitude. 



These modifications of natural gaits are generally 

 exact, and selected because they impart more animation 

 to the subject. 



In the airs das of the domain of the high school are 

 all those figures which a horse can be made to execute 

 upon two tracks at a step, passage, piaffer or gallop. 



The artificial motions are the leaps in which the horse 

 raises its anterior or posterior members or even the four 

 together. They are designated under the names of 

 pesade, curvet, croupade, ballottade and cabriole. 



A little space must be devoted to these airs of manege, 

 both because these attitudes are frequently found in the 

 pictures of the old masters and also because modern 



