The Small Horse

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Artist Albrecht Dürer (German, May 21, 1471–April 6, 1528)

Title The Small Horse (Das Kleine Pferd)

Date 1505

Medium Engraving on paper

Dimensions Image: 6 7/16 x 4 3/16 in. (16.4 x 10.6 cm)
Sheet: 6 7/16 × 4 3/16 in. (16.4 × 10.6 cm)

Credit Line William H. Conroy Memorial, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 72.127.2

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About this Work

Although the stallion profiled here raises an agitated foreleg and curls back his upper lip, he also maintains graceful constraint alongside his master. The column of smoke and flame rising behind them reinforces a bellicose impression of both horse and rider, yet the horse is clearly the primary object of Dürer’s attentions. His lifelong fascination with this animal compelled him to make in-depth studies of equine anatomy, a subject on which he at one point planned an eventual treatise that never materialized. Dürer has visibly attempted to reconstruct the horse’s proportions in part based on geometrical formulae first devised by Leonardo da Vinci.

Provenance
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Publisher Albrecht Dürer (German, May 21, 1471–April 6, 1528)

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"The Small Horse | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=72.127.2