Cantering Amidst Art, Science, And Aesthetics: Early Modern Equestrian Visual Culture

Abstract

Whether touring the Louvre, London’s National Gallery, or the Rijksmuseum, one cannot help but notice one ubiquitous non-human subject standing out amongst the others. For centuries, the horse (with or without rider) has been depicted in sculpture, portraits, drawings, and engravings, achieving a notable stance from the fifteenth century onwards. While this iconographic popularity has spurred art historians to focus on specific equestrian works of art, there is a lacuna of scholarship delving into equestrianism and the equine subject’s extended influence on visual culture produced in Europe during the early modern period.

In equestrian portraits of the European nobility, the apparent grace and control of the rider (and horse) have occluded the culture that inspired the poses and postures of the subjects. These depictions might be dismissed as a flattering fantasy of an elite in effortless control, or mere illusions of power with little basis in corporeality. In the context of early modern equitational theory, however, these iconographic choices reflected not only an achievable aspiration but an elite ideal. At the end of the sixteenth century, the rapid growth of an emerging equestrian style (termed manège) involved a complex negotiation of social roles that partook of publishing, visual strategies for disseminating and understanding information, and the rise of formalized physical instruction.

The primary aim of my thesis is to offer an innovative re-reading of well-known early modern equestrian portraits through the lens of this understudied manège culture. On the easel, the posture and expressions of grace and nonchalance had their roots in the phenomenal spread and influence of this evolving equestrian style. Manège had an influential role in the epoch’s vibrant fields of court culture, conduct and behaviour, as well as on the proliferation of a pan-European knowledge exchange. Subjects in early modern equestrian portraits were not simply ‘any horse’ ridden ‘any which way’; their manner of depiction (human and equine) was a reflection of rigorous physical training in a highly codified and theoretically outlined activity.