The Cavallo

Size: Height X Length
Inches: 81 X 81
Cms: 206 X 206

Meduim: Oil Enamel on Canvas

Circa: 1982 – 1987

The Cavallo
Lost in Relativity
Cavallo is an attempt to reach beyond the physical limitations. This horse would never have been created because he couldn’t have stood without any support. A fitting symbol of futile ambitions and efforts gone to waste. The struggle between the opposing elements – here as red and purple- is a recurring theme in Metamorphosis. The horse was only in the mind, never to be realized. A struggle between the self and the world around.

The Cavallo
Why was I Lazy?
Lost in Relativity.

It was, that though I wanted to execute the sculpture, I did not believe in it entirely- not that it could not be executed but in the basic theme of human glorification, and that too, in glorification of the madness of war. As often, I took the difficult path and made myself believe what I really don’t believe. Thus, having taken on the task to prove the artistic supremacy of it, I set about and then set it aside due to reasons artistic, technical, and utterly mundane– the courtly duties and the frivolities– the urgency of the mundane and the neglect of the divine. Oh! There were infinite reasons for the delay. When the conditions were good for casting I was lost in a maze of thoughts. Oh! I worked diligently solving problems that existed and the problems that did not. Too many options and not enough focus. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I felt I had been lazy. Why did not I push harder to get past “the reasons”.
Any way you look at it I was lost.
I played with “the puzzle”, never devoting myself to it
A little devotion would have solved “the puzzle “
But then I have eternally wanted to play with something.
Devoid of “the puzzle” what would I play with?!
Therefore, let me create a “new puzzle”

I thought of the bees, the bird, the sea, the mountains, the wind, the lakes,
the beauty of climatic variations, the autumn, the summer, the winter, the spring, the….
I thought of people those near to me, it thought of People as a whole,
I thought of myself in connection with the world
I thought of…
But never did I think of myself in connection with myself
As an entity, without having to correlate or correspond or aligning it to anything else.
And followed it through

-Bharat Dalal

Description of the painting :

Cavallo, Leonardo’s horse that never got completed. Cavallo the horse that made centuries collide in an instant. Bharat`s Cavallo was created in lithe, lucid muted strokes that combined abstraction and visual vivacity because he was creating a painting translated from a historic sculpture. Bharat created it as a study that revisits abstract artistry, thereby bestowing on the painting a distinct, compelling, bare stretch of lines equipoise and enthralling, in spirited details and the energy of the spirit.

The horse created by Bharat Dalal on the canvas is a symbol of the power and momentum of creative energy. It shows the artist’s vision which is directed and focused on a goal. The large size of the painting 6.9”x 6.9” stands as a testament to Bharat Dalal’s colossal creations of other paintings. This painting is a metaphor for the immense cultural, artistic, and scientific creativity of a Genius Bharat Dalal, who painted the Cavallo on the canvas. Roughly five centuries later of the original plan of The Cavallo, Bharat Dalal created a painting based on his thoughts on anatomy, the balance in art, his mastery over the painting, and his amazing depiction of natural phenomena.

The Cavallo by Leonardo Da Vinci :

Ludovico Sforza, the future Duke of Milan, requested Leonardo Da Vinci to build a sculpture that would be the largest Equestrian Statue in the world in 1482. Leonardo made many sketches of the horses and studied during his stay in Sforza stables and finally designed a 24 ft high clay model. Leonardo was about to mold the model into bronze, but war with France engulfed Milan in 1499. Sforza needed the bronze material of the horse sculpture for weapons and to forge cannons. The French defeated Milan, occupied Sforza’s Lands, and destroyed the clay model made by Leonardo da Vinci. The artist died in 1519 and could not finish the project “The Cavallo”, leaving the drawings and plans of the Cavallo.

The Background (Landscape) of the Painting :

As the white horse interacts with the two-colored zones that serve as a background, you imagine the shades – seeping, soaking, and sinking. The precise outlines which characterize traditional subject paintings are dissolved; what remains is the fluid and manifest contrast of visual spaces signifying the horse rising on its haunches. While the painting remains principally semi-realist in style, Bharat invites the viewer to seek comfort in the secreted dwellings and towering frame of the horse that he glimpses as a sculpted entity.

By veiling a distinguishable backdrop in the marbling technique of a two-toned zone, Bharat simultaneously instills mystique and vivacity in his layered work. Cavallo is Bharat’s pride as much as his dilemma in how to create a painting that resembles the sculpted spirit. Bharat Dalal made numerous small sketches to understand and illustrate his painting that should justify the final position of the horse and to give him a definite drawing of the Cavallo. He researched information from multiple sources to gain insight into Leonardo’s intentions and studied the notes and drawings of the horse made by Leonardo da Vinci on other projects. The plain background of the painting is showing the balance in art and is centrally focused on the horse.

The Technique and the Color : The technique used by Bharat Dalal in the execution of the painting “The Cavallo” was with a vision of deeper analysis of Fossilized Emotions, their consequential expression, and their eventual annihilation through experiences. This technique gave a three-dimensional perspective of “The Cavallo” in the context of tracing the Italian origin of the painting. He used the marbleized technique to smoothen the canvases. He had a clear vision during the execution of this painting to correlate and to establish the intangibility of spiritual metamorphosis with the tangibility of empirical metamorphosis. The blank canvases were hung from the ceiling with the help of pulleys and he precisely dropped the colors to acquire the desired shape and size under the law of gravity. This uniqueness is unparalleled and unreplicated, giving a sense of the fossilized passions of the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci.

He surmounts the restrictions of the flat canvas through his precise grasp of line, color, and structure, and in the treatment of the muscled Cavallo, we find spaces where the imagination can roam. His brushstrokes in oil and enamel on canvas seem to possess a concentrated power that adds body and life, making real the relationships between the subject and the emotive essence, as if there were another hidden dimension beyond his flat canvas. The color of the horse symbolizes different meanings like victory, war, or destruction. Bharat Dalal has used three colors (Red, Blue, and white) to portray this painting. The white and red colors indicate victory, strength, virility, innocence, and divinity while the blue color represents trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, the sky or the sea, heaven, and intelligence. The Cavallo symbolizes the impulsiveness, the impetuosity of desire, the darker human drives such as virility and sexuality, and the mediator between heaven and the earth. The Cavallo provoked Bharat Dalal to think of freedom or spiritual investigation and those different colors have special meanings and the blue of the background signifies a masculine color that stood for calm and peaceful behavior.

Perceptions to Pure Perceptions & the Evolution of Geometrical perspectives – III (three)

The Linear Diagonal

The third fundamental perception is distilled into the third painting to bring forth this geometrical perspective of the linear diagonal.
The diagonal marbleized veins, the position of the horse, the face, the legs, the two backgrounds all go on to emphasize the linear diagonal predominance of this painting.
The three-dimensionality of the horse is brought about in two different ways, from the inner and the outer. The diagonal denotes the dynamics of time and effort, in this case culminating into lethargy.
This, along with the two preceding linear analyses, is a prelude to the first original creator perception. The creator perception and also the prerequisite for the single-point perspective.

The Artist’s Perspective :

The horse was in the mind of the many artists and art connoisseurs for the last five centuries, but it was not realized. The Cavallo is an attempt to reach beyond the physical limitations and stands as a symbol of friendship between nations. The purpose of this painting is to encourage curiosity, imagination, and creativity among the viewers and to honor the noble horse, the man’s greatest companion throughout history. The Cavallo provides a powerful pathway to reconnect with the divine consciousness, a higher consciousness, and the level of grounded divine awareness through the bonding and harmony between the horse and the viewers. This awareness of the depth of consciousness and the level of energy ventures outside time and space to connect something greater than oneself. The conscious engagement with the Cavallo facilitates achieving the balance in the physical reality and moving into the spiritual world to open the door to meet the mysterious magical self.

The Writer’s Perspective (Conclusion) :

“The Cavallo” by Bharat Dalal has many different spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical dimensions. Bharat Dalal has manifested the power, strength, victory, growth, and his experience to connect with the creative source by realizing and understanding the divine and enlightened self. This path of self-discovery starts with the engagement and the acceptance of the multidimensional self and the kinetic energy that moves through it. The understanding of how to use the internal powerhouse of energies begins engaging our bodies and in a way that speaks the Cavallo- the language of nonverbal communication –the language of equestrian.

The horse painting has been portrayed as a very important figure in different cultures and mythologies around the world. The white color horse in this painting represents freedom, adventure, and a call of action to a spiritual investigation. Bharat Dalal has inextricably painted the Cavallo using his unique technique, the consideration, and insight of art, architecture, and giving a spiritual orientation by positioning the horse in a galloping situation.

Horses are one of the first creatures depicted in fine art during the Cave periods and used in numerous sculptures. They are associated with fertility, strength, swiftness, majestic beauty, dedication, and freedom. The Cavallo by Bharat Dalal is intended to tell the viewer about the class, status, and success of Leonardo da Vinci, and the horse symbolizes the last physical state of being, one’s final consciousness of life before the abyss of death. Over the last centuries, quite a few renowned masters in the west and the east have made horse paintings; however, the Cavallo, a galloping horse in this masterpiece, gives positive energy and a typical western perspective. The Painting Cavallo is not the homage or tribute to the creative genius, Leonardo; rather, it is influenced significantly by Bharat Dalal’s certain works of art and writings to emphasize his involvement in the Fossilized passions of Leonardo da Vinci. This painting is one of his conceptual artworks, of his scintillating and dreamlike drawings- the horse that showers the emotion and clarity more than any other work of the artist, Bharat Dalal.