THE 
WALK. 
23 
of Theodosius, erected at Constantinople in the fourth 
century. Two heavilydaden pack-horses in a procession, 
one immediately in front of the other, are represented, 
the one trotting, the other walking ; many other animals, 
oxen, camels, elephants, etc., are intended to be repre¬ 
sented walking, to some of which the artist gave a correct 
interpretation, to others, an erroneous one; the greater 
number, however, were strictly correct. 
The bronze horses over the portals of St. Mark’s 
at Venice, are fine examples of a careful study of natural 
action. 
Of the great masters of the fifteenth and two succeed¬ 
ing centuries, Donatello and Verrocchio are the most 
pronounced in their complete understanding of this 
movement, as their respective statues at Padua and 
Venice afford ample proof. Albert Durer, in “The 
Knight, Death and the Devil,” leaves a singular memento 
of his carelessness in giving effect to his avowed intention. 
One of the greatest Austrian artists of this century, in 
companion pictures, each of a procession in which women 
and children are taking part, has the central figure of one 
picture on a horse walking, of the other, on one trotting. 
A celebrated animal painter of France, in a picture 
so meritorious as to be considered worthy of a place in 
the national collection, depicts several oxen yoked to a 
plough ; from the vigorous efforts of the driver to goad 
them on, they are supposed to be making very slow 
progress ; but one, only, of the animals is walking; the 
others, with probably the same inclination, are moving 
with a variety of gaits. 
Error in the interpretation of the quadrupedal walk 
had become so predominant, that when Meissonier 
exhibited his picture of “1814,” he was much ridiculed 
by the artists and critics of Paris for having—as they 
supposed—misrepresented that action. In 1881 the great 
painter assembled his colleagues of the Academy in his 
studio for the purpose of convincing them, as he himself 
announced on the occasion, that “ the Sun had now 
been invoked to prove the truth of Meissonier’s impres¬ 
sion.” It is unnecessary to point out the phase selected 
by the artist for the leading horse of his picture. 
The “ Roll Call ” affords another well-known example 
—to the astonishment of the critics at the time—-of a 
careful study of the walk. 
The walk of a quadruped being of a slow unexciting 
character, is perhaps the reason why few references are 
made to it, by name, in poetry, or even in general prose 
compositions. 
Shakespeare uses the word, metaphorically, in 
Hamlet , i. t — 
“ The morn in russet mantle clad, 
Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastern hill.” 
Milton, in “ Paradise Lost,” vii., says—- 
“ Among the trees, in pairs they rose and walked.” 
And Swift, in a voyage to the Houyhnhnms, reports 
that Gulliver “saw a horse walking softly in the field.” 
Authors, as a rule, indicate the pace by some inferential 
word. Thus Wordsworth, in “ The Old Cumberland 
