Equestrian

Artist: Josep Maria Subirachs

Title: «Equestrian»

Year: 1977

Media: bronze

Edition: 9 copies

Size: 130 x 88 x 38 cm

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The theme of the horse is recurrent in the works of Subirachs and is repeated in works from different periods.

Other works by Subirachs festuring horses

At the end of the nineteen sixties, Subirachs entered the new figurative reality period, in which he presents the dialectic aspects of a theme through the play of positive and negative. In this period, he showed his fascination for the artistic creations of the ancient Greek and Roman world and, also, for the Italian Renaissance and the Baroque. This return to ancient cultures led him to reinterpret the equestrian theme, which he undertook for the first time in 1968 and which he was to return to with certain variations. By providing the work with a substantial pedestal, the artist recalls the Roman predilection for equestrian statues (Marcus Aurelius in Rome) and the Renaissance work of Donatello (Condottieri Gattamelata in Padua) or Verrocchio (Condottiero Colleoni in Venice). As Francesc Fontbona observed, his necessarily lateral vision of the theme recalls fifteenth century Florentine frescoes.

Condottiero Colleoni in Venice

In this work, Subirachs once again resorts to his usual play of positive-negative, drawing the viewer’s eye towards the concave shiny part of polished bronze that shows the musculature of the equine and contrasts with the rough texture of the rest of the sculpture.