APPENDIX. I07 



Colleoni, both as regards outline and gait ; we are com- 

 pelled, if therein we recognise the lack of elegance, the 

 thickness of the body, and the bad outlines of the limbs, 

 from the point of view of hippie delineation, to affirm 

 that M. Cherbuliez errs in criticising the gait so severely. 



Let what he said be first transcribed, subsequently 

 we will prove our assertion : " What is much more 

 important for me here to emphasise is the contrast which 

 the statue of Phidias offers to the majority of the eques- 

 trian groups of modern artists. 



Having to carve in marble, or to cast in bronze, the 

 statue of a captain or a king, they never failed to hoist 

 their hero upon the back of a horse, and this, because it 

 is apparently more agreeable to represent kings and 

 captains on horseback, and that, in addition, the person- 

 age placed highest and farthest removed from the ground 

 arouses the more respect. But, however, between the 

 cavalier and his mount there is no concord, no agreement 

 of lines or of movement ; the horse is nothing but a 

 pedestal, or the second storey of the sub-basement. I 

 am not exaggerating, I defy you to point out many 

 exceptions, and, leaving generalities, remember one of 

 the most vaunted works of modern times, one of the 

 master-pieces of the Renaissance, the famous equestrian 

 statue of the General Bartholomew Colleoni of Bergramos, 

 which decorates the place of the Church Zanipolus at 

 Venice. 



Vassari states that the seigniory having decided to 

 raise this monument, entrusted the execution to Andreas 

 Verocchio, the master of Perugini and of Leonardo, and 

 a sculptor of the greatest renown ; then, thinking better 

 of it, only confided the horse to him, and the General 

 was assigned to Vellano of Pedua, pupil of Donna Tello. 

 Verocchio, indignant at the affront put upon him, broke 

 the head and legs of his horse, and went into voluntary 

 exile, then returned, and saved himself from the senate 

 by a witticism ; the entire commission was then restored 

 to him. 



But speaking frankly, if the statue of Colleoni had 

 been executed by the two sculptors, I do not think it 

 would have lost much, for in that upon the square 

 Zanipolo can be found neither harmony nor unity of 



