Een paard naar links galopperend 1590

Antonio Tempesta produced this engraving of a horse, galloping left, most likely in Italy sometime around the turn of the 17th century. But what does it tell us? It is an image of power. The horse is not just any animal: its musculature ripples as it rears up, almost bursting from the confines of the print. Horses were essential to military and aristocratic power in early modern Europe. The elite equitation academies taught riders to master these animals, to bend them to their will, and this print participates in the glorification of equestrian skill. But it is also an image of knowledge. The Latin inscription tells us about the horse’s swiftness and breath, and the whole print seems designed to show off Tempesta’s mastery of anatomy and the engraving burin. This was a time when artists and artisans were eager to demonstrate that their skills were not mere craft, but rather a form of knowledge production. To understand this print better, we might want to examine books on horsemanship from the period, or explore the patronage networks that sustained artists like Tempesta. Artworks like this are always embedded in a complex social and institutional context.