A study of a horse rearing in profile to the right; with a rider whose right arm is raised above his head to strike at a foe crouching beneath the horse's feet. The group is set upon a triumphal arch, which is vaguely indicated.

While in France, Leonardo made many designs towards an equestrian monument, probably for his employer Francis I. Here the horse is barrel-chested, the rider rather rubbery and doll-like, nude apart from a cascading cloak, and raising his arm to strike a fallen foe who pushes his foot up into the chest of the horse. The hazy black chalk and uncertain sense of scale give the drawing a dream-like atmosphere. Leonardo seems not to have attempted large-scale or physically demanding work in his final years, and unlike thirty years before, when he was working on the Sforza monument (see eg. RCIN 912357, 912358) he did not put his mind to the practicalities of modelling or casting the sculpture.

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018