I08 THE HORSE. 



thought, and one cannot avoid believing that the 

 Verocchio, who made the horse, was not the same who 

 made the horseman. I have never been able to regard 

 this over-vaunted horse without a sort of grief. Recollect 

 the small magnificent head adjusted upon this enormous 

 body, this heavy stomach, this massive croup, these 

 flanks buried in fat. Assuredly this was not the horse 

 which Xenophon loved, the animal of whom it could be 

 said that it had a soul. This melancholy horse suffers 

 from plethora, and has the gloomy languishing appear- 

 ance imparted by painful digestion, accompanied by 

 somnolency. There is no action, nothing to betoken 

 life, added to which there is the fact that the position of 

 its legs cannot be explained. It lifts the left anterior, 

 folding it in an ugly manner, which induced Cicognara to 

 declare that the horse had the appearance of wishing to 

 descend from its pedestal, but in this point one can be 

 re-assured. The three other legs are fixed on the soil, 

 which they press with all their weight, more especially 

 the right hind leg, which should accompany the move- 

 ment, is the most backward of all, and skilful indeed 

 would be he who could detach it from the pedestal . . . 

 etc." 



I will not here enter into the criticisms of the details 

 of this statue, which, despite its defects and its massive 

 appearance, is of a noble character. I will only contest 

 the last lines of the preceding description by briefly 

 recalling what occurs in the locomotion of the horse at a 

 walking gait. 



The sculptor of Colleoni has represented his horse 

 resting upon the diagonal base, formed by the right 

 anterior and posterior members ; the right hind foot still 

 rests upon the ground it is about to quit. Three feet 

 touch the ground at a walk, representing the natural gait, 

 rather than the exceptional. The right leg is therefore 

 in a just movement; it is accurate to say that the fore 

 limb, which in this case is elevated, should be less 

 advanced and nearer to the ground ; this is the especial 

 reproach which can be made against the horse of 

 Colleoni in explaining its gait ; with the exception of 

 this exaggeration, the appuis are accurate, both as to 

 direction and print upon the soil ; for self-conviction on 



