Michael Prodger at The New Statesman:
The complicated, multi-figure compositions evolved through studies of groups, individual figures, and through more general drawings of limbs, moving bodies or muscles in action. Among the most beautiful of Leonardo’s preparatory drawings are those showing horses. One red chalk and ink study from the Royal Collection summarises in extraordinary beauty both his powers of observation and his quest for the most telling pictorial moment: the horse is shown rearing but both head and legs are sketched in several positions as he sought the perfect arrangement. They transmit both equine energy and movement, as though he were condensing a flick-book of images into one drawing.
Michelangelo focused on twisting male bodies, treating the musculature with great care but rarely spending time on the faces of his warriors. In one rapid pen and ink sketch he did imagine a melee of mounted combatants similar to Leonardo’s, but perhaps for that very reason he took the idea no further.
more here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.