Out of the saddle, and onto the easel: the correlative influence of equitational culture on early modern equestrian portraits

Abstract

ABSTRACT In early modern equestrian portraits of the European nobility, the apparent grace and control of the rider has occluded the culture that inspired the poses and postures of the subject. These depictions might be dismissed as a flattering fantasy of an elite effortlessly in control, illusions of power with little basis in corporeality. Rereading these images in the context of early modern equitational theory and practice suggests that these riding carriages reflect not only an achievable aspiration, but an ideal to be fulfilled. At the end of the sixteenth century, the rapid growth of an emerging equestrian culture (termed manège) involved a complex negotiation of social roles that partook of publishing, visual strategies for disseminating and understanding information, and the rise of formalized physical instruction. On the easel, expressions of grace and nonchalance have their roots in the phenomenal spread and influence of an evolving form of French equestrian culture.