If you are reading this post in September I have just spent a few weeks in Italy - especially in Florence, Milan and Trieste and this story has been on my mind.
My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything asked me to read Leonardo's Horse because it was a book she put out on a library display in June. Sadly none of the children had borrowed it. She purchased this book in 2009 (it was published in 2001) and I can see from the date due slip it has only been borrowed three times. This is a missed opportunity for her students and their parents. This is a fascinating book and the design is surely very appealing with the book shaped like the dome that was built by Charles Dent. More about that in a moment. Leonardo's enormous horse sculpture was not completed back in 1493. He did make a huge clay model, but in 1499 the French army arrived in Milan and they shot arrows at the statue and then it rained and this amazing twenty-four-foot model was destroyed.
In 1977 Charles Dent read about Leonardo's horse. Like Leonardo, Charlie was a dreamer. He decided to build the horse as gift from America. In 1988 he began, firstly with an eight-foot model, then he built a dome to hold the sculpture and by 1994 they were ready cast the twenty-four foot model but very sadly Charles Dent died at the end of that year. In 1995, just as the horse was about to go to the foundry someone decided something was wrong with the proportions.
"He looked awkward. Out of proportion. One of his rear legs appeared to be short. His eyes were not exactly parallel."
So now another artist from New York City took over the project. Nina Akamu began the whole process all over again. She studied real horses and made another clay model. Then an eight-foot horse from plaster and then a twenty-four-foot horse from clay and finally this was cast in bronze. To transport the horse to Milan it was cut into separate pieces. On 10th September 1999 the statue was unveiled in Milan.
This book is about history, perseverance, sculptures, art, horses and dreamers. Here is the Kirkus star review of Leonardo's Horse. You can see inside this book here. And here is a CBC review.
I recently attend a terrific lecture about the Fabulous Florentines - Leonardo da Vinci; Michaelangelo; Machiavelli; Dante; Donatello; Botticelli; and other names that were unfamiliar to me such as Francesco Petrarch; Lorenzo de Medici; and Artemisia Gentileschi. I remember watching a fascinating BBC television program called 'A Skirt through History' and one episode featured Artemisia. Here is a video for adults as background information. Exploring these famous names could be a fabulous topic to explore with an extension class in Grade 6 or a High School art class.
Books for children about Leonardo da Vinci:
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