Editing Equestrian statue (section)

==History==
[[File:Knight-Iran.JPG|thumb|right|[[Khosrau II of Persia|Khosrow Parviz]] is standing here. On his left is [[Ahura Mazda]], on his right is [[Anahita]], and below is, Khosrau dressed as a mounted Persian knight riding on his favourite horse, [[Shabdiz]], in the city of, [[Kermanshah]], [[Iran]]]]

===Ancient Greece===
Equestrian statuary in the West dates back at least as far as [[Archaic Greece]]. Found on the [[Acropolis of Athens|Athenian acropolis]], the sixth-century BC statue known as the [[Rampin Rider]] depicts a ''[[kouros]]'' mounted on horseback.

===Ancient Middle and Far East===
A number of ancient [[Egypt]]ian, [[Assyria]]n and [[Persia]]n [[relief]]s show mounted figures, usually rulers, though no free-standing statues are known. The Chinese [[Terracotta Army]] has no mounted riders, though cavalrymen stand beside their mounts, but smaller [[Tang dynasty]] pottery tomb Qua figures often include them, at a relatively small scale. No Chinese portrait equestrian statues were made until modern times; statues of rulers are not part of traditional Chinese art, and indeed even painted portraits were only shown to high officials on special occasions until the eleventh century.<ref>Stuart, Jan & Rawski, Evelyn Sakakida. [https://books.google.com/books?id=W2aaAAAAIAAJ&q=Chinese+Ancestor+portraits ''Worshiping the ancestors: Chinese commemorative portraits''], Stanford University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8047-4263-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8047-4263-4}}</ref>

===Ancient Rome===
[[File:Roman - Head of a Horse - Walters 54759 - Profile.jpg|thumb|left|This horse head from [[Suasa]] was once part of a large equestrian monument. {{circa|40 AD}}. [[Walters Art Museum]], [[Baltimore]].]]

Such statues frequently commemorated military leaders, and those statesmen who wished to [[symbol]]ically emphasize the active leadership role undertaken since Roman times by the equestrian class, the ''[[equites]]'' (plural of ''eques'') or knights.

There were numerous [[bronze]] equestrian portraits (particularly of the emperors) in [[ancient Rome]], but they did not survive because they were melted down for reuse of the alloy as [[coin]], [[church bell]]s, or other, smaller projects (such as new sculptures for Christian churches); the standing [[Colossus of Barletta]] lost parts of his legs and arms to Dominican bells in 1309. Almost the only sole surviving [[Roman Empire|Roman]] equestrian bronze, the [[equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius|equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius]] in Rome, owes its preservation on the [[Campidoglio]], to the popular misidentification of [[Marcus Aurelius]], the philosopher-emperor, with [[Constantine the Great]], the Christian emperor. The ''[[Regisole]]'' ("Sun King") was a bronze classical or Late Antique equestrian monument of a ruler, highly influential during the Italian Renaissance but destroyed in 1796 in the wake of the [[French Revolution]]. It was originally erected at [[Ravenna]], but moved to [[Pavia]] in the Middle Ages, where it stood on a column before the cathedral. A fragment of an equestrian portrait sculpture of [[Augustus]] has also survived.

===Medieval Europe===
[[File:Statua equestre Cangrande della Scala (Verona).jpg|thumb|The original statue of [[Cangrande I della Scala|Cangrande I]] (14th century), now replaced by a copy. [[Scaliger Tombs]] in [[Verona]]]]
Equestrian statues were not very frequent in the [[Middle Ages]]. Nevertheless, there are some examples, like the [[Bamberg Horseman]] (German: ''Der Bamberger Reiter''), in [[Bamberg Cathedral]]. Another example is the ''Magdeburg Reiter'', in the city of [[Magdeburg]], that depicts Emperor [[Otto I]]. This is in stone, which is fairly unusual at any period, though the Gothic statues at less than life-size at the [[Scaliger Tombs]] in [[Verona]] are also in stone. 

There are a few roughly half-size statues of ''[[Saint George and the Dragon]]'', including the famous ones in [[Prague]] and [[Stockholm]].  A well-known small bronze [[equestrian statuette of Charlemagne]] (or another emperor) in Paris may be a contemporary portrait of [[Charlemagne]], although its date and subject are uncertain.

<gallery>
Bamberger Reiter Dom Bamberg P1330479.jpg|[[Bamberg Horseman]] (1225–1237), [[Bamberg Cathedral]], stone
Alter Markt (Magdeburg-Altstadt).Magdeburger Reiter.ajb.jpg|[[Magdeburg]] Horseman (1240), Magdeburg
Sv. Jiří a drak.jpg|St. George and Dragon (1373), Prague
Riemenschneider Hl Georg.jpg|[[Tilman Riemenschneider]], Saint George (1490–1495) in [[limewood]], [[Bode Museum]]
</gallery>

===Renaissance===
[[Image:Gattamelata.jpg|thumb|[[Donatello]]: [[Equestrian statue of Gattamelata|Statue of Gattamelata]] (1444–1453)]]
{{main|Italian_Renaissance_sculpture#Equestrian_statues}}
After the Romans, no surviving monumental equestrian bronze was cast in Europe until 1415–1450, when [[Donatello]] created the heroic bronze [[equestrian statue of Gattamelata]] the ''[[condottiere]]'', erected in [[Padua]]. In fifteenth-century Italy, this became a form to memorialize successful mercenary generals, as evidenced by the painted equestrian funerary monuments to [[Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood|Sir John Hawkwood]] and [[Niccolò da Tolentino]] in [[Florence Cathedral]], and the [[Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni|statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni]] (1478–1488) cast by [[Verrocchio]] in [[Venice]].

[[Leonardo da Vinci]] had planned a [[Leonardo's horse|colossal equestrian monument to the Milanese ruler, Francesco Sforza]], but was only able to create a clay model. The bronze was reallocated for military use in the [[First Italian War]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kemp |first=Martin |title=Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199207787 |pages=201–203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJwVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA201}}</ref> Similar sculptures have survived in small scale: [[Horse and Rider (Leonardo da Vinci)|The Wax Horse and Rider]] ({{circa|1506}}–1508) is a fragmentary model for an equestrian statue of [[Charles II d'Amboise|Charles d'Amboise]].<ref>The statue now in London putatively by Leonardo himself according to [[Carlo Pedretti]].</ref> The [[Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior]] in bronze was also attributed to Leonardo.

Titian's equestrian portrait of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]], of 1548 applied the form again to a ruler. The [[equestrian statue of Cosimo I]] de' Medici (1598) by [[Giambologna]] in the center of [[Florence]] was a life size representation of the Grand-Duke, erected by his son Ferdinand I.

Ferdinand himself would be memorialized in 1608 with an equestrian [[Equestrian statue of Ferdinando I|statue in Piazza della Annunziata]] was completed by Giambologna's assistant, [[Pietro Tacca]]. Tacca's studio would produce such models for the rulers in France and Spain. His last public commission was the colossal equestrian bronze of [[Philip IV of Spain|Philip IV]], begun in 1634 and shipped to Madrid in 1640. In Tacca's sculpture, atop a fountain composition that forms the centerpiece of the façade of the Royal Palace, the horse rears, and the entire weight of the sculpture balances on the two rear legs, and discreetly, its tail, a novel feat for a statue of this size.

<gallery>
Bartolomeo Colleoni by Andrea del Verrocchio.jpg|[[Andrea del Verrocchio|Verrocchio]]: [[Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni]] (1480–1495)
Saint George and the Dragon 2012.jpg|[[Bernt Notke]]: [[St George and the Dragon]] (1489), bronze replica of wooden sculpture, Stockholm
Cosimo I (Florence) 2 2013 February.jpg|[[Giovanni Bologna|Giambologna]]: [[Equestrian statue of Cosimo I]] (1598)
Madrid May 2014-33.jpg|[[Pietro Tacca]]: [[Monument to Philip IV of Spain]] (1634–1640)
</gallery>

===Absolutism===
[[Image:I. Nagy Péter szobra.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Bronze Horseman]]'' by [[Étienne Maurice Falconet]] (1768–1782)]]

During the age of [[Absolutism (European history)|Absolutism]], especially in [[France]], equestrian statues were popular with rulers; [[Louis XIV]] was typical in having one outside his [[Palace of Versailles]], and the over life-size statue in the [[Place des Victoires]] in Paris by [[François Girardon]] (1699) is supposed to be the first large modern equestrian statue to be cast in a single piece; it was destroyed in the [[French Revolution]], though there is a small version in the [[Louvre]]. The near life-size equestrian statue of [[Charles I of England]] by [[Hubert Le Sueur]] of 1633 at [[Charing Cross]] in London is the earliest large English example, which was followed by many. 

The equestrian statue of King [[José I of Portugal]], in the [[Praça do Comércio]], was designed by [[Joaquim Machado de Castro]] after the [[1755 Lisbon earthquake]] and is a pinnacle of Absolutist age statues in Europe. The ''[[Bronze Horseman]]'' ({{langx|ru|Медный всадник}}, literally "The Copper Horseman") is an iconic equestrian statue, on a huge base, of [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] of 1782 by [[Étienne Maurice Falconet]] in [[Saint Petersburg]], [[Russia]]. The use of French artists for both examples demonstrates the slow spread of the skills necessary for creating large works, but by the nineteenth century most large Western countries could produce them without the need to import skills, and most statues of earlier figures are actually from the nineteenth or early twentieth century.
[[Image:GroszerKurfuerstVonBrandenburgReiterstandbildSchlueter01.jpg|thumb|Equestrian statue of [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick William]], Elector of Brandenburg, built 1696–1703]]

===United States===
{{See also| List of equestrian statues in the United States}}
In the colonial era, an equestrian statue of [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] by English sculptor [[Joseph Wilton]] stood on [[Bowling Green (New York City)|Bowling Green]] in [[New York City]]. This was the first such statue in the United States, erected in 1770 but destroyed on July 9, 1776, six days after the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Equestrian Statues |journal=Art and Progress |date=1913 |volume=4 |issue=8 |pages=995–998 |jstor=20560907}}</ref> The {{convert|4,000|lb|adj=on}} gilded lead statue was toppled and cut into pieces, which were made into bullets for use in the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite web |title=King George's Head |url=https://www.connecticutsar.org/king-georges-head/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322012728/http://connecticutsar.org/king-georges-head/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=March 22, 2015 |website=The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution |access-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref> Some fragments survived and in 2016 the statue was recreated for a museum.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dunlap |first1=David W. |title=Long-Toppled Statue of King George III to Ride Again, From a Brooklyn Studio |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/nyregion/toppled-statue-of-king-george-iii-to-ride-again.html |access-date=August 24, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=October 20, 2016}}</ref>

In the United States, the first three full-scale equestrian sculptures erected were [[Clark Mills (sculptor)|Clark Mills']] ''[[Andrew Jackson (Mills)|Andrew Jackson]]'' (1852) in [[Washington, D.C.]]; [[Henry Kirke Brown]]'s ''[[George Washington]]'' (1856) in [[New York City]]; and [[Thomas Crawford (sculptor)|Thomas Crawford]]'s George Washington in [[Richmond, Virginia]] (1858). Mills was the first American sculptor to overcome the challenge of casting a rider on a rearing horse. The resulting sculpture (of Jackson) was so popular he repeated it for [[New Orleans]], [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], and [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]].

[[Cyrus Edwin Dallin]] made a specialty of equestrian sculptures of American Indians: his ''Appeal to the Great Spirit'' stands before the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|Museum of Fine Arts]], [[Boston]]. The ''[[Robert Gould Shaw Memorial]]'' in Boston is a well-known [[relief]] including an equestrian portrait.

===Twentieth century===
[[File:Lobey Dosser 2.jpg|thumb|right|Lobey Dosser (and Rank Bajin) on El Fidelio, commemorating [[Bud Neill]]]]

As the twentieth century progressed, the popularity of the equestrian monument declined sharply, as monarchies fell and the military use of horses virtually vanished. The [[:File:Queen Elizabeth II and Burmese Statue.JPG|statue of Queen Elizabeth II riding Burmese]] in [[Canada]], and statues of [[Rani Lakshmibai]] in [[Gwalior]] and [[Jhansi]], India, are some of the rare portrait statues with female riders. (Although [[Joan of Arc]] has been so portrayed a number of times,<ref>[http://www.jeanne-darc.info/statues-monuments/ Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) (1412–1431): Statues and Monuments]</ref> and an [[:File:Queen Victoria, George Square, Glasgow.jpg|equestrian statue of Queen Victoria]] features prominently in [[George Square]], Glasgow). In America, the late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed something of a revival in equestrian monuments, largely in the [[Southwestern United States]]. There, art centers such as [[Loveland, Colorado]], Shidoni Foundry in [[New Mexico]], and various studios in [[Texas]] once again began producing equestrian sculpture.

[[File:Johan Laidoner statue.jpg|thumb|Equestrian statue of General [[Johan Laidoner]] in [[Viljandi]], [[Estonia]]]]

These revival works fall into two general categories, the memorialization of a particular individual or the portrayal of general figures, notably the American [[cowboy]] or [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]. Such monuments can be found throughout the American Southwest.

In Glasgow, the sculpture of Lobey Dosser on El Fidelio, erected in tribute to [[Bud Neill]], is claimed to be the only two-legged equestrian statue in the world.