Budapest rider
The so-called Budapest Rider is one of the few surviving sculptures that give us an impression of Leonardo da Vinci's art as a sculptor.
Work data
- Date of origin: around 1516 - 1519
- Bronze with artificially applied green patina, height 24.3 cm
- Budapest , Szépművészeti Múzeum
- Inv.-No .: 5362
- Acquired in 1914 from the heirs of István Ferenczy
The work
The Budapest rider shows a naked warrior, adorned only with a helmet and armed with a shield, on a rearing horse. The rider bears the physiognomy of the French King Francis I (1494–1547) and presumably shows him as a successful warrior who crossed the Alps in 1515 and conquered Lombardy .
Attribution
The depiction of horses in every possible way of moving has occupied Leonardo all his life. He probably took up this idea again in France , where he wanted to thank the king with such a work of art for the invitation and the granted hospitality. According to Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (1538–1600), it was a cavallo that was owned by the Italian sculptor Leone Leoni (1509–1590) around 1584 . There is much to suggest that this is the Budapest Rider , whose design goes back to Leonardo himself with great certainty.
It is controversial whether he also made the statuette himself. While many Hungarian researchers are convinced of this, the rest of the specialist community is more likely to oppose it. All you see in the work is a work that was carried out based on a model by Leonardo. However, it is unclear what this template looked like.
It only seems certain that he prepared the work in drawings, various of which were named as possible models. It is unclear, however, whether Leonardo might not have created a model of the rider himself in clay or wax. If there was such an original, modeled by the master, the option is open that the bronze rider is a cast of the same. This could then perhaps even have been made under Leonardo's supervision.
This cast could just as well have been made later and was perhaps made because the original model was in danger of deteriorating. At that time, this was not exactly a rare procedure to save works of art threatened by natural decay. The only fact seems to be that the Budapest rider reproduces one of Leonardo's last artistic ideas.
There are a number of similar works, mostly only horses without riders, which were also identified with the cavallo named by Lomazzo and probably go back to the same design, but the Budapest work can claim the most attributions by experts.
Between 1818 and 1824 the statuette was purchased in Rome by the Hungarian sculptor and art collector István Ferenczy (1792–1856) . The Budapest Museum acquired his valuable collection of sculptures from his heirs, including the rider, who is also known as the Budapest Rider in the professional world based on his current location .
literature
- Mária G. Aggházy: Sculptures by Italian and Spanish Masters , Budapest 1977, ISBN 963-13-0218-0 and ISBN 963-207-029-1
- Klára Garas: The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest , Budapest, 1987, ISBN 963-13-2313-7
