Archive for the ‘Horse Sculpture’ Category
The desolate Ebbsfleet area of Kent England is to be the home of “Horse” a public art sculpture. What is particularly unusual about “Horse” is not that it is a sculpture of a white horse, but that it will stand 50m high (164ft). It will in fact be taller than the Statue of Liberty.
The Ebbsfleet Valley is a development zone lying within an ex-industrial territory sandwiched between the Thames Estuary and the outer London motorway system. Although there are future plans to create a planned community of 10,000, the area but before anyone inhabits it, in a move possibly unique in art history, it was decided to give this hypothetical place a sculptural emblem.
“Horse” is already being called the “Angel of the South”, as supporters believe it will promote the south of England, and specifically the Ebbsfleet area. It is hoped that this sculptural emblem will create a high profile marker for the Ebbsfleet Valley and Ebbsfleet International Railway Station. Estimates indicate that up to 60 million people will see “Horse” each year from their car or from trains.
Images of great horse art come to mind when viewing the plans for this project: the rearing majesty of Stubbs’s Whistlejacket, the powerful curves of the Iron Age White Horse of Uffington and the nag in Picasso’s Guernica.
The sculpture itself will be an accurate representation of a thoroughbred white racehorse with a bridle. At 50m tall, it will be 33 times larger than a real horse. “Horse” was designed by former Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger.
The cost of the project? A cool £2 million (3.07800 million U.S. dollars). Half of the funding has been raised so far. The completion date of the horse sculpture will not be known until all funding has been completed.
The desolate Ebbsfleet area of Kent England is to be the home of “Horse” a public art sculpture. What is particularly unusual about “Horse” is not that it is a sculpture of a white horse, but that it will stand 50m high (164ft). It will in fact be taller than the Statue of Liberty.
The Ebbsfleet Valley is a development zone lying within an ex-industrial territory sandwiched between the Thames Estuary and the outer London motorway system. Although there are future plans to create a planned community of 10,000, the area but before anyone inhabits it, in a move possibly unique in art history, it was decided to give this hypothetical place a sculptural emblem.
“Horse” is already being called the “Angel of the South”, as supporters believe it will promote the south of England, and specifically the Ebbsfleet area. It is hoped that this sculptural emblem will create a high profile marker for the Ebbsfleet Valley and Ebbsfleet International Railway Station. Estimates indicate that up to 60 million people will see “Horse” each year from their car or from trains.
Images of great horse art come to mind when viewing the plans for this project: the rearing majesty of Stubbs’s Whistlejacket, the powerful curves of the Iron Age White Horse of Uffington and the nag in Picasso’s Guernica.
The sculpture itself will be an accurate representation of a thoroughbred white racehorse with a bridle. At 50m tall, it will be 33 times larger than a real horse. “Horse” was designed by former Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger.
The cost of the project? A cool £2 million (3.07800 million U.S. dollars). Half of the funding has been raised so far. The completion date of the horse sculpture will not be known until all funding has been completed.
Some of the oldest horse figurines in the world are the clay horse sculptures of the Chinese. Ever since its domestication in northeastern China over 5,000 years ago, the horse has played a major role in warfare, leisure activities sport and art.
Many artists chose the horse as a model and there are numerous wonderful horse pieces from the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD).
Numerous clay figures of horses and cavaliers that date to the Tang Dynasty have been unearthed from the graves of the Shen-si and Ho-nan provinces.
There are notable differences in the portrayal of the horse from each province.
Those of Shen-si usually represent the bare horse in a sober and mechanical conception. While the clay horses of Ho-nan are more realistic. The horses are always harnessed, in a variety of poses affected particularly by manifold turns of the neck.
The Clay Horse Sculptures of Sen-si:
Among seven clay horses of miniature size acquired at Si-ngan fu, six are almost identical, while the seventh is differentiated only in that the mane is coarsely fashioned.
This photo of a saddled clay horse sculpture was excavated in Lung chou, prefecture of Feng-siang, province of Shen-si. It stands is 27.5 cm tall. It is an exception to the more crudely designed sculptures, being somewhat better shaped, and coated with soft lead glazes in three colors – a deep brown, a light yellow, and a plant green. Also, the saddle and saddle cloth are represented and the saddle is padded with a textile material gracefully draped on both sides.
This unglazed clay horse figure is 52.8 cm high and is from Shen-si. It excels by its massive dimensions, but is otherwise the outcome of the routine work of an ordinary craftsman.
The Clay Horse Sculptures of Ho-nan:
The Ho-nan horses, on the other hand, appeal to us by the gracefulness of their motions, and the variety of actions in which they are represented. Also the details of the harness are better and more efficiently worked out.
The following clay figures of horses are typical examples of the finer work of the Ho-nan artists.
This horse turns its head sideways and the muscles are brought out in its head.
The headstall, saddle-cloth, and padded saddle are all represented. This figure stands 27.7 cm tall.
This 30.0 cm tall horse figure appears with complete harness and upright mane. The head is very well modeled. Although the pose is somewhat stiff, the potter seems to have attempted to represent the animal as though mourning for its deceased master.
This horse with complete harness is also mourning for its dead master. The trappings with their metal ornaments, the tinkling bells on the breast band, as well as the designs of lotuses on the crupper, are neatly molded in relief. This clay horse is 32 cm tall.
This last example of the clay horse figures from Ho-Nan is the largest of those represented here, standing 80 cm tall. This piece was discovered in the spring of 1910 during the cuttings for a railroad north of the city of Ho-nan fu. It is a fragmentary figure of horse, notable for its unusual dimensions and its perfect lead glazing.
The natural coloration of the animal is reproduced by a light-yellow soft lead glaze while the mane is brown. The saddle is glazed a plant green with the double saddle-cloth underneath it a dark brown intermingled with green. The seat of the saddle is padded with a material arranged in graceful drapery.
The ornamental metal pieces attached to the headstall, the breast band, and cruppers are glazed green.
The design which is brought out on these is characteristic of the T’ang period, and found also as relief decoration on coeval pottery vases.
For some interesting information about the horse in Chinese History, visit the Kentucky Horse Park International Museum of the Horse.
Of particular interest are the colorfully glazed clay horse sculptures of the Tang Dynasty that were included in this special exhibit.
P.S. The Kentucky Horse Park has published a book about the museum’s Imperial China exhibition complete with stunning photographs of the horse art, including bronze fittings, chariots, swords, and gold ornaments from the Western and Eastern Zhou dynasties, earthern wares from the Qin dynasty, and numerous Tang, Yuan and Ming glazed terracotta sculptures. Get your copy of Imperial China : The Art of the Horse in Chinese History today!
The Trojan Horse Sculpture was created by John Bushnell, a seventeenth-century English sculptor during the reign of King William.
He was born in London in 1630 to a family with no background in the arts. His father was a plumber, but agreed for his son, who showed early ability in carving and drawing, to engage in study of the arts.
Bushnell was much admired for his Baroque style sculptures, most notably his statues of the two Charleses at the Exchange, and the two Kings at Temple-bar. Bushnell’s conceptions were rather whimsical than happy, and he appears to have been constantly striving to accomplish wonders.
One of his whims was to demonstrate the possibility of the Trojan horse, which he had heard treated as a fable that people believed could not have actually been carried out.
The Trojan Horse was a tale from the Trojan War, as told in Virgil’s Latin epic poem “The Aeneid”. In the tale, after a 10 years long war, the Greeks built a huge model of a horse that held an army of 30 men. Leaving it behind in the city of Troy, the Greeks pretended to sail away. The Trojans pulled the Horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the Horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greek army entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.
In creating his Trojan Horse, Bushnell relied upon the same principles of wood covered with stucco used in the tale. The head was capable of containing twelve men sitting round a table and the eyes served for windows. Before it was half completed a hurricane overset and demolished this stupendous work. The two vintners, who had contracted with him to use his horse as a drinking booth, offered to pay for the expense of erecting it again, but he was much too disappointed to recommence. This project cost him £500.
At this time, Bushnell was taken by delusion of greatness and bankrupted himself with ventures that included building a mansion at Hyde Park Corner as well as his huge reconstruction of the Trojan Horse. Upon his death in 1701, he left behind his widow, Mary, and their children living in their half-finished house. A number of his works, left in progress at his death, remained on the property and became the objects of vandals and the curious.
