Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to construct the largest horse statue in the world.
It would stand a total of 26 ft tall and weigh 70 tons.
But things went south when the French rolled into Milan and used his sculpture for target practice...
In 1482, Da Vinci was asked by the Duke of Milan: Ludovico il Moro to build a bronze equestrian statue.
The sculpture would be erected in honor of the Duke’s father: Francesco Sforza.
It was going to be a colossal project.
Da Vinci took the project very seriously.
He studied horses rigorously and even wrote a treatise (a formal written work basically) on horse anatomy.
And by November of 1493, he was well on his way.
Da Vinci constructed a full-size clay version of the horse in November.
And by December, he was ready to begin the casting process.
But nearly a year later, Ludovico shipped off all the bronze to his father-in-law Ercole d’Este for the production of cannon balls.
The Italians were to use the cannon balls as a defense against Charles VIII.
(Charles was a funny-looking guy if you look at his portraits... haha)
And when the French invaded Milan in 1499, they used Da Vinci’s sculpture as target practice.
As you can imagine, the statue did not fair well after that…
Combined with weathering, the statue was completely destroyed.
The grand project that Da Vinci started suffered the same fate as many of his undertakings - unfinished.
And when Michaelangelo heard the news, he didn’t hesitate to insult him for being too incompetent to finish the casting…
We will dive into their rivalry another day. It is certainly interesting.
But, what’s one thing we can learn from this story?
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE:
-Adopt urgency.
From my time reading about Leonardo da Vinci, he lacks a sense of urgency. Now, maybe this trait spills over into his incredible creative abilities and if he pushed harder to get things done maybe he wouldn’t have produced what he did… But I’m not buying it. I think Da Vinci was too lackadaisical regarding timelines and the completion of projects. I mean he had a year to get started on the casting of the horse but never made it happen and low and behold, his creation was washed away… And this happened consistently throughout his life. He has tons of unfinished works. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a few more master works by Da Vinci? And what if all it took was just taking on a bit more urgency?
What I take from this story is the importance of urgency and really pushing to get things done sooner rather than later. You never know what life is going to throw at you, but if you hesitate or squander your time, you may have opportunities taken from you.
I am reminded of this quote:
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
—Charles Darwin
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