Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/225



Accademia, Venice

which are the work of XVth century Italian sculptors, the horses are represented as unarmoured. It cannot be sufficient reason for this omission that the sculptor preferred to present the horse in all its natural beauty, rather than to add accoutrements; for the same neglect of equestrian armaments appears in most of the paintings of the Italian primitives. Take, for instance, Andrea del Verrocchio's famous statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni at Venice, cast by Leopardi about 1476 (Fig. 989). The great general is shown completely armed; but his horse is entirely unarmoured and has only slight poitrel and flanchard straps by way of adornment. These pendent strips of leather or fabric which decorated the horse trappings of the XVth and XVIth centuries were called, according to M. Victor Gay, boutreaux. The saddle is splendidly represented, appearing luxuriously comfortable for the rider who, through riding straight-legged, takes his natural height from the horse's back, and is not unduly raised as he would have been in the preceding century. The Donatello statue of General Gattamelata at Padua shows the same unarmoured horse (Fig. 990). Examine, too, Vittore Carpaccio's pictures in the Scuola of San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, and you will note that in one representation of St. George the saint is shown completely