DOI chapter:
Chapter VI Our Equestrian Statues
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.65493#0178
i3°
THE SPIRIT OF
doubt there are others also. And in
what infinite variety of imagination
and of rendering their works stand be-
fore us! The whole procession of
mounted heroes produces no sense of
monotony. Originality, that quality
overprized when prized at all as an end
in itself, appears in sufficient measure.
Yet, beginning with Saint-Gaudens,
most of these well-trained artists
would undoubtedly admit their debt of
gratitude to Barye and Fremiet and
Dubois, the French masters, and be-
yond these, to Donatello and to Ver-
occhio and Leopardi, through whom
the Renaissance gave to the world
those two vivid masterpieces, the Gat-
tamelata and the Colleoni. If that
almost mythical third masterpiece, da
Vinci’s Sforza, had been saved to
round out a trinity of high accomplish-
ment, how great would have been our
debt to Italy! As it is, the void left
is something every sculptor is free to
VI
OUR EQUESTRIAN
THE SPIRIT OF
doubt there are others also. And in
what infinite variety of imagination
and of rendering their works stand be-
fore us! The whole procession of
mounted heroes produces no sense of
monotony. Originality, that quality
overprized when prized at all as an end
in itself, appears in sufficient measure.
Yet, beginning with Saint-Gaudens,
most of these well-trained artists
would undoubtedly admit their debt of
gratitude to Barye and Fremiet and
Dubois, the French masters, and be-
yond these, to Donatello and to Ver-
occhio and Leopardi, through whom
the Renaissance gave to the world
those two vivid masterpieces, the Gat-
tamelata and the Colleoni. If that
almost mythical third masterpiece, da
Vinci’s Sforza, had been saved to
round out a trinity of high accomplish-
ment, how great would have been our
debt to Italy! As it is, the void left
is something every sculptor is free to
VI
OUR EQUESTRIAN