A Pacing Horse

Statuette of a bronze horse wearing a bridle, with the left foreleg and right hindleg raised to represent pacing. The horse has black lacquer (later addition) on the natural patina, and the tail, which falls at an unnatural angle, has been resoldered to the body. The base of the tail, which is now missing, probably once had an ornament attached, and there is a square hole, filled in, on the horse's back where the saddle and rider would have been placed.

This bronze was cast using the indirect method, with a wax-to-wax join at the neck visible in X-radiography. The dark brown lacquer, pooled in streaks along the horse's flank, is possibly a later application. The tail, which is hollow on the inside, has been loosely reattached at the wrong angle, which suggests it may not be original. The presence of the reins and girth suggests that the horse was originally intended to have a rider, although it is not possible to ascertain if a figure of this type was ever added. The reins appear to have been added after the making of the horse but judging from the treatment of its surface, the inset rectangular plug that hides the hole on the back, appears to be original.

The statuette is of excellent quality, thinly chiselled, particularly in the rings of the reins and in the mane; and the veins are carefully modelled. However, the bulbous eyes are left without pupils, the teeth are not defined, the mouth is lacking a tongue, and the nails are not visible on the horseshoes, details that we usually see in the monumental bronzes produced in the workshop of Giambologna. The model lacks the vivacity of versions by Giambologna where the powerful nature of the animal, its frontal posture and the apparently controlled step, combined with the vigorous modelling of the head, confer greater visual impact to the work, alluding rather to the regal monumentality of a large equestrian sculpture.

(See Motture, P. in Giambologna: the gods, the heroes, 2006, p. 276)

Historical significance: The signature on this small bronze, apparently added in the wax before casting - is of particular significance as it proclaims Susini's role in the design both of the independent statuette and, it seems, in the other equestrian monuments.

This bronze is signed by the Florentine, Antonio Susini, who was employed in the workshop of Giambologna from 1580 until 1600, at which point he set up his own studio nearby. The horse demonstrates a formal development regarding the design of Giambologna's equestrian monument of Cosimo I, in whose execution Susini had played an important role. However, it is closer in form to the monuments of Ferdinand de' Medici and above all to Henry IV of France, that originally stood on the Pont-Neuf in Paris (1604-1611; destroyed in 1792). Susini’s horse is identical to the bronze horse of Henry IV, of which a copy is today conserved in Dijon (Musée Des Beaux-Arts). The signature on the underbelly of the work, which closely resembles that on the ‘Farnese Bull’ bronzes, is of particular importance as it makes the statuette an important document for the style of Susini, much of whose work is overshadowed by Giambologna. Susini would therefore have had more motive to ensure that the signature of this piece was recorded as it would have been one of the first small equestrian statuettes. The work has also been associated with two designs, now in the Uffizi, attributed to Cigoli, who was involved with the artist in the initial phases of Cosimo I, although the extent of his collaboration is still not clear.

Susini was involved in the design and execution of Giambologna's monument to Duke Cosimo I de' Medici (1594), but this model is closer to the equestrian statue of Duke Ferdinando I in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence (1608). The Ferdinando monument was largely executed by Pietro Tacca, but this statuette may reflect an earlier model. The presence of the girth and reins indicate that the horse was originally intended to have a rider.

A.11-1924