What could the animal be thinking, its gaze, where we can read a mixture of curiosity and concern, planted in ours? Signed Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), the white horse head It is a good reflection of the fascination that these animals, with their enigmatic attitudes, exerted on painters. The work is on display at the Palace of Versailles, in a rich exhibition entitled “Horse in Majesty”, which explores four centuries of equestrian art, from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 20th century.my century. It can be discovered in a dozen rooms of the palace, along a long route dotted with some 300 works.
Proposed for the Olympic Games (OG) and Paralympic Games (the park of the castle hosted the equestrian events), the exhibition survives in Paris 2024 and will remain open until November 3. The flow of visitors should see a jump with the surprise arrival of Zeus, the silver mechanical horse whose rides on the Seine had enchanted the spectators of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games: after having been exhibited in the courtyard of the Paris City Hall, it will join, from 1Ahem October, the palace of the Sun King.
The location probably influenced the curators’ choice to focus the exhibition on court life, art and war rather than domestic life or farm work. The horse is represented there with the same magnificence as the sovereigns who occupied the place. From the first room, several of them stand proudly, with their manes waving in the wind, like Kortom, or carefully straightened, like Sultan, painted life-size on monumental canvases.
dizzying mane
These horses were the favourites of Charles XI of Sweden, who had them immortalised by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1628-1698). Louis. As for Marengo, depicted by Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) in the famous canvas Bonaparte crossing the Great Saint Bernard Passacquired a notoriety almost equal to that of its rider.
“The noblest conquest ever made by man is that of this proud and fiery animal who shares with him the weariness of war and the glory of combat. (…). He also shares his pleasures, hunting, tournaments, races, he shines, he shines”Buffon writes in his Natural history (1749-1789). For festivities, animals were lavishly adorned, as evidenced by a ceremonial chair of silver-embroidered velvet, a diplomatic gift from Louis XIV to the King of Poland, Augustus the Strong, and this other one of silk velvet woven with gold and silver threads, offered to Charles XI of Sweden.
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