58 THE PROBLEM OF THE GALLOPING HORSE 



revealed by the new photographs. The picture is an 

 epoch-making one, whether justifiable or not, and is now 

 in the gallery of the Luxembourg. It must be noted that 

 though Meissonier and others had succeeded in represent- 

 ing more truthfully than had been customary, other move- 

 ments of the horse, such as " pacing," ambling, cantering, 

 and trotting, yet in regard to them, also, more easily 

 observed because less rapid, the instantaneous photograph 

 served to correct erroneous conclusions. 



Two very interesting questions arise in connection with 

 the discovery by instantaneous photography of the actual 

 positions successively taken up by the legs of a galloping 

 horse. The first is one of historical and psychological 

 importance, viz. why and when did artists adopt the false 

 but generally accepted attitude of the " flying gallop " ? 

 The second is psychological and also physiological, viz. if 

 we admit that the true instantaneous phases of the horse's 

 gallop (or of any other very rapid movement of anything) 

 can not be seen separately by the human eye, but can 

 only be separated by instantaneous photography, ought an 

 artist to introduce into a picture, which is not intended to 

 serve merely as a scientific diagram, an appearance which 

 has no actual existence so far as his or other human eyes 



PLATE III. Representations of the gallop. Fig. I. A combination of the 

 hinder half of Fig. 10, PI. I, with the front half of Fig. 4, PI. I. 

 Fig. 2. One of the many admirable Chinese representations of the 

 galloping horse. This is very early, namely 100 A.D. The pose is 

 that of the " flying gallop " as in Figs. 2, 4 and 5 of PI. II. Fig. 3. 

 From a Japanese drawing of the seventeenth century ; the pose is a 

 modification of the " flying gallop," and agrees closely with that of 

 Fig. i in this plate. Fig. 4. The flex-legged prance from a bas-relief 

 in the frieze of the Parthenon, B.C. 300. Fig. 5. A modern French 

 drawing giving a pose very similar to that of Figs. I and 3. It is the 

 most " effective " pose yet adopted by artists, and is an improvement 

 on the full-stretched flying gallop, though failing to suggest the 

 greatest effort and rapidity. Fig. 6. Instantaneous photographs cf 

 four phases of a horse "jumping." 



