Piccolo cavallo

Piccolo Cavallo ('Little Horse') is a tender and personal work that was originally created in bronze in 1955-56 and recast by Marini in a small number of examples in yellow metal in 1968. Critics, especially Marini's compatriots, have often referred to Marini as the last of the Etruscans. This small sculpture shows why: its reductive modelling and expressive proportions are reminiscent of Etruscan bronze sculptures.

Marini's style is not merely copyist: he admired the Etruscans because they had the spark of originality and inspiration, and as a Tuscan, Etruscan culture was part of his heritage. Marini disregarded Classicism and the Renaissance as influences because they lacked the energy of inception. He preferred to seek the spark of originality and eventually found it by combining his pared-down appreciation of form with a simple, almost domestic, subject matter. This aspect of his work was to some extent inspired by ancient Egyptian art, where quotidian subjects are often imbued with huge religious power. This 'Little Horse' is not an imperious, monumental representation, but an intimate image.

The horse stands, head high, in a proud but informal way. It is not straining and is not mounted. It seems, however, to be deprived of a rider. The horse is lost, abandoned by man. In this work Marini has emphasised the outmoded nature of the horse by deliberately making this sculpture look like an antiquity. Also, by omitting the creature's ears and tail, he has hinted at the skeleton in the horse's outline, as though it were an archaeological or paleological discovery. The horse therefore contains the shadow of its own extinction. Nature itself, and man's 'animal within', has been deserted, but the tamed horse, Marini suggests, has lost as much as the rider.