bronze, brown natural patina, hollow cast, horse and rider cast separately, removable head, image of Emperor Leopold I In armour with the Order of the Golden Fleece on a ribbon, his horse performing a courbette with raised front legs, standing on its hind legs, its head turned slightly to the right, an animated mane and swaying tail, the rider stretching out his right hand, black wooden base on a later date, height 36.5 cm, full height 47.5 cm, length 36.5 cm, staff of command and bridle missing, one spur missing, 2nd half of the 17th cent., (Lu)

This equestrian statuette of Emperor Leopold I is directly associated with a series of other equestrian statuettes held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, and an equestrian portrait owned by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Caspar Gras received his training to start with in his father's goldsmith workshops. From 1600, he worked under Hubert Gerhard, leaving for Innsbruck in 1602 in the retinue of Archduke Maximilian the Deutschmeister (German Master). In 1613, he was appointed as embosser to the court. His first large-scale work was the Trautson epitaph in the Viennese Church of St Michael, which was shortly followed by a funerary monument for Archduke Maximilian the Deutschmeister in the Cathedral of St Jacob at Innsbruck. He further executed the Leopold Fountain in Innsbruck between 1622 and 1630, which was not only his greatest work, but one of the most important bronze monuments of the 17th century in Southern Germany and Austria. Caspar Gras was considered the last exponent of Mannerism, developing the artistic tradition of Alexander Colin and Hubert Gerhard. There is little doubt about the attribution of this equestrian figure to Caspar Gras. A series of very similar equestrian statuettes by the artist have survived, and, in certain respects, he may be deemed to have been a specialist in the production of small-scale works of this kind.

In his seminal article in the catalogue, Ruhm and Sinnlichkeit, Innsbrucker Bronzeguss 1500-1650, Von Kaiser Maximilian bis Erzherzog Ferdinand Karl, Tyrol Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, 27 June to 6 October 1996, Dr Manfred Leithe-Jasper, the former director of the Kunstkammer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, outlines the development of this specific genre of prestigious small bronzes in reference to four equestrian statues. These statuettes adhere to a typology that was developed by followers of Giambologna in Florence; the designs by Pietro Taccas for the equestrian portrait of King Philipp IV and Duke Karl Emanuel of Savoye may well have prompted the choice of motif. The apparent practice of preparing maquettes for equestrian figures with interchangeable horses, riders and heads is documented for the first time in Tacca's workshop, as was reportedly the case in Francesco Susini's workshop.

Aside from the four equestrian statues in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Leith-Jasper mentions other statuettes, amongst other works, in the Victoria & Albert Museum London, the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, the National Gallery, Washington and the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf. All of these equestrian figures differ even if only in terms of small details. The armour and the horses' sternum straps differ in the way they have been finished, the horses' tails are positioned differently, and the various riders can be distinguished from one another in small particulars. Leithe-Jasper identifies 6 different types in total in his analysis, the equestrian statuette offered here being type 5 in his typology. The rider is wearing a sash with a bow to the rear and the Order of the Golden Fleece on a ribbon.

On the basis of this typology, it can be definitively concluded that the figures of the riders were executed prior to any orders and that this was a form of serial production. The heads were then made once the identity of the person to be portrayed was known. The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna holds interchangeable heads of this kind, one of which is presumed to be the portrait of Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705) and another, Archduke Sigismund Franz (1630-1665).

This equestrian statue bears the Order of the Golden Fleece on a ribbon. Emperor Leopold I received the Order as early as 1654 at the age of 14 as a young Archduke. That same year, his elder brother and the heir to the throne, Ferdinand IV had died.
The interchangeable head undoubtedly bears the facial features of Emperor Leopold I with his heavily protruding lower jaw, lips and moustache. His long, curled hair falls down below his collar and shoulders. His head is crowned with a laurel wreath. Dies zeigt die Herrscherwürde an. He was crowned King of Hungary in 1655 and, in 1656, King of Bohemia. Then in 1658, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor and king. Here the emperor's head appears to show him at the approximate age of 25 to 30 years old. This would suggest a casting date for the head of circa 1665/1670.

The stylisation of the emperor's hair and other facial characteristics clearly support an attribution to the Gras workshop. Many details of the horse and rider's body correspond with the figure of Archduke Ferdinand Karl (1628-1662) held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (inv. no. 5995).

Provenance:
Austrian private ownership.