14 ADRIAEN DE VRIES
Dutch (active in Florence,
Milan, Augsburg, and Prague),
1545-1626
Rearing Horse, circa 1610-1615
Bronze
48.9 cm (19^4 in.)
Inscribed on the base: ADRIANUS
FRIES HAGUENSIS FECIT
86.SB.488
The horse, or the horse and rider, was an extremely popular subject in European
sculpture from the time of the Renaissance onward, perhaps because of its association
with famous ancient monuments, such as the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus
Aurelius in Rome. The earliest independent bronze statuettes of horses in the
Renaissance were probably produced in northern Italy at the end of the fifteenth
century. By the seventeenth century, technical advances in the art of bronze casting
enabled sculptors to balance the weight of the entire composition on two of the horse's
legs. Several primary concerns of the early Baroque aesthetic—sudden, violent motion,
an open composition with forms projecting into space, and the sense of a fleeting
moment frozen in time—were intrinsic to the image of the rearing horse and made
it an appealing subject for sculptors and their patrons. Works such as the Museum's
Rearing Horse, which preserves its golden-red varnish, use this surface treatment
to enhance the sense of movement as light shimmers across the animal's smooth,
muscular body. The size of the horse, its dynamic pose with forelegs pawing the air,
and the beauty of the patina all testify to De Vries's exceptional skill as a designer
and maker of bronzes.
Born in The Hague, De Vries traveled to Florence in the early 1580s and joined
the studio of Giambologna, the official sculptor to the Medici dukes. De Vries was
Giambologna's most influential and innovative follower and played a key role in
disseminating the Florentine Mannerist style of the late sixteenth century to the
courts of Northern Europe. In 1601 De Vries was appointed official court sculptor
to Rudolf II in Prague, where he continued to work until his death. Although he is
known to have modeled sculptures in terracotta and stucco, De Vries worked primarily
in bronze and became a superb technician, producing sculptures that were unusually
consistent in their high level of accomplishment. In addition to his large-scale figures
for complex fountain projects, De Vries executed numerous smaller bronzes for interior
decoration, such as the Rearing Horse. De Vries produced several equestrian bronzes
closely related to the Museum's composition, including a Rearing Horse with Snake in
the Stockholm Nationalmuseum and a portrait of Duke Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig
on Horseback formerly in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick. PAF
EUROPEAN SCULPTURE 47
