Sante Barelli - Mounted Officer

The subject of the equestrian monument, or the man on horseback, has very ancient origins. It dates back even to the classical world, and the oldest example is the “Rampin Rider,” a masterpiece of archaic Greek art. In Roman art, the equestrian monument was of fundamental importance, also from a political point of view. Generally, these are free-standing sculptures, but there are cases in which this subject appears on painted supports or in genre prints. The theme of the man on horseback has run through the entire history of art, not only Western art, and became a subject of study for contemporary artists such as Marino Marini, Arturo Martini, or Aligi Sassu.

The work in question can be identified as a most interesting example of official military portraiture. Indeed, the artistic and pictorial value of the painting is also associated with its historical value, derived from its nobly didactic and illustrative character. The artist, in fact, perfectly describes both the officer's clothing, the uniform with its decorations, as well as the horse's tack and harness. Furthermore, the portrait is set in a perfect historical context, with a battle scene in the background, perfectly blended into the dust-filled atmosphere. There is a conventional and idealized character, typical of this kind of official representation. An idealization that can be found in the statuesque forms of the horse and rider and in their courtly attitudes. From a formal point of view, precisely because clarity is the painter's main goal, the composition is carried out with clean lines and the volumes are outlined in a concrete manner. As for the color, there is a perfect tonal coherence across the entire surface of the work, with earthy shades of brown.

As we can deduce from the analysis of this work, the artist Sante Barelli stands out for a rigorous and traditional interpretation of official portraiture, which he executes with a confident technique and solid academic training. His production is highly valued not only from an artistic point of view but also as a faithful, precise, and detailed historical record.

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