Module 11- Leonardo's Horse

Book Cover Image:


Book Summary:

Leonardo’s Horse, by Jean Fritz, is the story of how Leonardo’s da Vinci’s unrealized dream of creating a bronze horse became a reality over 500 years after the destruction of his unfinished horse.  Leonardo accomplished many great things, including such works of art as The Last Supper or Mona Lisa.  However, his greatest disappointment was his failure to complete his bronze horse and it is rumored that even on his deathbed on May 2, 1519, he wept for his horse.  The story of Leonardo’s horse was almost forgotten until Charles Dent read of it in 1977.  Charlie adopted Leonardo’s dream and began working on giving Leonardo his horse as a gift from America to Italy.  However, before Charlie could complete Leonardo’s horse, Charlie became ill and died.  At this point, Nina Akamu, a talented sculptor from New York, stepped in and agreed to continue Charlie’s work on Leonardo’s horse.  On September 10, 1999, a large crowd of Italians and Americans witnessed the unveiling of Leonard’s horse in Milan, Italy.  Written on one eye of the horse is Leonardo da Vinci; on the other eye is written Charles Dent and Nina’s name appears in the curly mane of the horse.    

APA Reference of Book:
Fritz, J., & Talbott, H. (2001). Leonardo's horse. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Impressions:
While I have heard many times about Leonardo da Vinci and were familiar with many of his popular works of art, I had never heard anything about his horse or the its history.  This book does an excellent job of telling the entire story of Leonardo's horse throughout not only Leonardo's life, but also the efforts of Charles Dent and Nina Akamu to bring Leonardo's horse to completion.  The illustrations and informational text provide insight into the different techniques used in the creation of this sculpture.  The book would appeal to readers of any age especially those interested in the life or works of Leonardo da Vinci.

Professional Review:

Though this starts with a brisk and spirited overview of Leonardo's life, this isn't a biography (for that, see Diane Stanley's Leonardo da Vinci, BCCB 9/96); it's an examination of one of Leonardo's projects, which took five centuries for fulfillment. Leonardo studied and planned for the creation of a huge bronze horse "three times larger than life," analyzing the technical problems ("No one had tried a single pouring of anything this large") and completing the clay model--but never achieving the actual bronze casting. Come the twentieth century, an art lover named Charlie Dent decided thatLeonardo's horse deserved completion, planning a model and creating a dome that would house the finished object; when he died of ALS just before completion, the Dome supporters brought in a talented sculptor who realized that the horse needed redesign from scratch and who completed the task in time for Leonardo's horse finally to be delivered to the people of Milan 500 years to the day of the destruction of Leonardo's original clay model. This is an unusual and surprisingly touching story of a cumulative collaboration ("On the pupil of one eye of the horse, Nina had written in tiny letters Leonardo da Vinci. On the other eye she had written Charles Dent. She had put her own name in the curly mane of the horse"), and it also raises some interesting questions for discussion (how much, for instance, is it still Leonardo's horse?). Talbott's mixedmedia art takes advantage of the book's arched shape (echoing the horse's Dome home), and it adds information as well as beauty, with diagrams and maps inserted where appropriate and a plethora of equestrian studies and models trotting through the pages. He's fair about the drawbacks in Charlie Dent's rendition, but he's also effective at capturing the spirit throughout all the horse's incarnations. For art lovers or just fans of quixotic dreams, this will be an offbeat and intriguing read. An author's note and appended information gives more detail on benefactors, the process, and the website of the organization behind the sculpture.

Stevenson, D. (2001, October). Leonardo's horse (book review). Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 55(2), 55-57. Retrieved from http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/

Library Uses:
For older elementary students have a story time where they are read Leonardo's Horse, and then for a craft have them make their own horse using a cast and modeling clay.  Have the cast used in the craft be of a similar type as used in the book to describe how they went from clay to plaster to bronze.  They will put the clay inside of one side of the cast, place the other side on top of the bottom piece, press, and remove the top piece to reveal the horse made from clay.  They may need to trim the access clay from around the cast  of the horse if there was too much clay put into the cast.