GERALD LAING

Selected Citations and Comments

The second in a series of four equine studies for an unrealised proposal for the corner of Coventry Street and Haymarket, near the Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus, London.

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Rearing Mare and Rearing Stallion (cat. number 538) owe a technical debt to the statue of the Duke of Wellington on Princes Street in Edinburgh, whose cantilevered rearing pose is rendered possible by the presence of a ton of lead in the tail.
In antiquity Leonardo was the first sculptor to assess the technically difficult rearing pose, but the earliest existing sculptures are by Pietro Tacca (1577–1640). All subsequent rearing horses have been influenced by Leonardo’s expressive naturalism. In all cases the bases are an important integral part of each sculpture.

Gerald Laing, Notes for the 1993 Retrospective Exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, unpublished manuscript, 1993