Horseman Swinging a Club, Seen from Behind

Author: Rosie Razzall

This previously unpublished drawing of a man on horseback seen from behind is by an unknown fifteenth-century artist in the vicinity of Verona. The motif of a horse seen from behind appears regularly in the work of Pisanello (1395-1455), for example in a drawing in Paris,^[1] and in his frescoes for Sant’Anastasia in Verona, for which there is a drawing on the verso of I 524, now in Moscow.^[2] As well as demonstrating the artist’s skills in foreshortening, the horse seen from behind could create visual variety in a crowd of people, as well as being a pictorial device that appears to breach the space between the viewer and the painted scene.

The Rotterdam drawing is dynamic in the pose of the rider and in the sweeping movement of his flowing cloak, but the legs of the man and horse are rather stiff and flat. The smooth outlines in pen and ink suggest that the subject is a copy after a painting or fresco, though a corresponding subject has not been identified. This is especially evident when compared with a drawing by an artist from the school of Verona of a horse in three-quarters view, also in Paris,^[3] where the feathery handling of pen and ink demonstrates a study from life. The artist in the Rotterdam sheet captures the decorative details of the horse’s harness and saddle, as well as the rider’s vicious-looking spurs. A note on the mount dates the drawing to the 1420s, and a date of the mid-fifteenth century is maintained here.