On horseback: equestrian portraiture in Renaissance France

"Train the brain more than the kidneys and legs [1]". The advice was given to train a horse, but it applies just as well to educate a man. Antoine de Pluvinel, the king’s first equerry, teacher to the young Louis XIII and author of the Manège royal took the comparison a step further: horses are like people; they should be tactfully bridled and led "with discretion, without making them angry [2]". The idea was taken up by his pupil, William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, "a king being a good horseman, will know best how to govern his people when they should be rewarded or chastised, when their hand should be held tightly or when it should be loosened, when they should be helped gently or when it will be proper to spur them on [3]". Whether politicians should be put back in the saddle today is another question.

1. France, circa 1570-1574
Charles IX on Horseback
Marble - D. 42 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: RMN-GP/S. Maréchalle

See the image in its page

Indispensable in everyday life, as a means of locomotion and an advanced weapon on the battlefield, the horse was also a symbol of power during the Renaissance. The King of France was a knight: from the reign of Charles VI in 1380, knighthood became part of the coronation ceremony, and a pair of golden spurs was added to the regalia. Since the king knew how to guide his people as well as his horse, it would have been in bad taste to depict him on a rearing horse, like Zorro emerging from the night. Because an animal that rears up is an animal that rebels and is therefore not controlled by its rider. Artists who wanted to create dynamic portraits nevertheless favoured two gaits: the "passage", which is more or less a trot, and the "pesade", i.e. a horse standing on its two hind legs (which, the uninitiated will not believe, has nothing to do with a rearing horse).

The Musée d’Écouen takes a closer look at all the facets of equestrian portraiture in the Renaissance, in an exhibition prepared for the Olympic Games in conjunction with the Versailles exhibition "Horse in Majesty" and the Marly exhibition "The King’s Horses" (see article). The catalogue combines erudition with pedagogy, with fascinating essays and an equestrian glossary in the appendix. It is a pity, however, that the works are not reproduced in the same order as the exhibition and that not all of them are accompanied by a commentary.
The subject is precisely defined by curator Guillaume Fonkenell: isolated representations of horses have been excluded, as have Saint and mythological figures. Only historical figures from the Renaissance have been included. Visitors might expect a gallery of painted portraits, but not so. The works on display are extremely varied, with horsemen depicted on enamels, seals, medals and engravings. Sculpture occupies an important place, even if monumental statues are obviously absent; not only was it impossible to move them, but most of them were destroyed. Small bronzes and sculpted…