The Horse of State

"The equestrian portrait has a long tradition in Western visual art. Since antiquity, rulers have glorified themselves on horseback, hoping their personality would thereby be immortalized. In most cases, however, it was the artist who gained the lasting fame—think of Donatello and Verrocchio. With Het Staatspaard, things are fundamentally different. The horse—always a dominant presence and recognizable by breed in equestrian portraits—is absent, as is its rider; and the artist remains in the background as well. What is all the more prominent are the indispensable attributes of riding: the stirrups, the bit, and the reins. And these attributes invite anyone to become, for a short or long time, the rider of Het Staatspaard.

The illusion of riding is enhanced by a pedal mechanism at the foot of the piece. Het Staatspaard consists of clearly recognizable parts that are, however, greatly enlarged and removed from their everyday context. These parts are assembled into a whole on oversized tripod stands. Recognition and confusion interweave. In art historical terms, one might speak of a form of surrealism in this object art.