Lost wax bronze replica with gilded patina.
The Arabian horse is a beautiful sculpture made by Gaetano Monti. It is thought to be inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's preparatory drawings for the famous and never completed equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. In 1482 Ludovico il Moro proposed to Leonardo Da Vinci to design the largest equestrian monument in the world to pay homage to the late father Francesco.
The equestrian monument was the result of eleven years of work between 1482 and 1493, but was never completed. The monument was made exclusively of wax, and exhibited to the public in Milan in 1493 had the benevolent clamor and general reception of the entire Milanese population. Everything seemed ready for its smelting which required 100 tons of molten bronze, when Milan was invaded by the French enemy troops, and the 100 tons of bronze were donated to the construction of cannons to defend the Lombard city. The gigantic wax model left in the courtyard of the Palazzo Granducale in Milan was destroyed by the French troops during the invasion of 1499.
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