The False Start 1870

Edgar Degas captured in paint a moment of anticipation and potential energy at the racetrack. The horse, a potent symbol of vitality, is depicted mid-stride, a pose echoing the dynamic sculptures of antiquity. Think of the mounted statues of Roman emperors; the horse has always been a signifier of power, nobility, and control. Yet here, Degas subverts that classical image. In earlier times, the horse was a symbol of triumph and authority, but in Degas's frame, the 'false start' suggests something more—a moment of suspended action. The animal's straining muscles convey its pent-up energy, a psychological tension mirrored in the anxious faces of the spectators. This recalls the archaic Greek kouros figures, in which the stillness belies a latent power, waiting to be unleashed. This moment of hesitation, rendered with such vibrant immediacy, embodies our own human condition: a constant state of readiness, poised on the brink of the unknown.