The Budapest Horse: A Leonardo da Vinci Puzzle

July 3 – September 7, 2009
West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery 41

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior from the Szépm?vészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts), Budapest, was shown with 5 related small bronzes in this focus exhibition devoted to exploring the possible attribution of the so-called Budapest Horse to Leonardo da Vinci. Works on view included sculptures associated with Leonardo and works attributed to other artists for comparison. The sculptures were on loan from private and public collections in Europe and the United States. Explanatory panels presented the results of technical examination of the Budapest Horse at the National Gallery of Art. After leaving the National Gallery, the Budapest Horse was shown in exhibitions at the High Museum, Atlanta, and at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

The exhibition was part of the Extremely Hungary Festival.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art in association with the Szépm?vészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts), Budapest. Shelley Sturman, head of object conservation, Katherine May, associate object conservator, and Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art, conducted exhibition research and were curators.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by Robert H. Smith. Collaborative research was supported by a grant from the Hungarian Cultural Center and the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture.

Attendance: 76,258