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Bronze horses, timeless and true!
Elegant yet anatomically precise, Patricia's museum quality bronze horses unforgettably capture, in molten metal, the strength, the "aliveness", and very spirit of horses.
This casting metal, or alloy has been the medium of choice for many equestrian masterworks throughout the ages. And this most enduring of metals is the greatest test of the sculptor's skill,
utterly demanding of the artist's time, talent and dedication.
The following pages present a representative sampling of Patricia's bronze horses:
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Featured Bronze Horses:
(Click on each red link below, for information on each.)
5 Gaited Bronze Saddlebred
1/5 scale portrait of "The Phoenix"
a multi-titled Champion.
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Bronze Head Study
"Caledvwlch", the whispering horse. An expressive head study, beloved by horsemen.
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Saddlebred Bronze
"After the Class"
A show horse in cross-ties following a class. Saddle off; cooler going on.
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Mustang
"Spooked" -- a Mustang, shying with explosive energy from flushed quail.
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Because each of the
bronze horses is individually hand cast and personally supervised by the artist, please allow 8 - 12 weeks delivery for your Patricia Crane bronze.
Bronze Horse Sculpture
"The Gathering", a composition including a stallion and two broodmares, but each may be purchased separately and looks great standing alone.
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Sporting Art: Thoroughbred
"Cooling Down" - portrays a Thoroughbred just after a race, when blood-horse characteristics are so evident.
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CASTING BRONZE HORSES -
The oldest method known for
the casting of bronze, is known in sculpting as the cire perdue (Lost wax) process, in which the mold is formed over a wax model. The wax is then melted out (or lost) to leave the hollow space
in which to pour molten metal alloy. Variations of this process, used to create bronze horses today, were practiced in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China many centuries before the Christian era.
MUSEUM QUALITY BRONZE HORSES - Museum quality means the completed casting is very high in over all quality. The
thickness of the walls of the bronze horses at any point, should be no more than one fourth of an inch thick. Solid or heavy castings are no longer necessary or desired. There should be NO tool marks
on the surface as this detracts from the texture or lack of texture of the sculptor's original and denotes a lack of casting finesse. The patina (or final coloring of the bronze horses) should be achieved
with the painstaking, time-consuming layering of actual chemicals that etch into the surface of the metal to provide a depth of color over transparent color - a patination that is achievable no other way.
There are many stages in the creation of sculpting horses, and each stage requires great knowledge, skill, and a very great deal of time for the result to be considered museum quality. Such quality
absolutely requires that: a sculptor not only sculpts a competent original but oversees every detail in every stage during the long process, from lst mold to completed casting, and works with exacting
and very talented artisans, in a fine arts foundry that pours the right alloy at the right temperatures.
MORE BRONZE HORSES:
 Visit the Life size
Bronze "Phoenix" sculpture created for The International Museum in Kentucky , for a step by step explanation, in words and images, of the fascinating process of how such
bronze horses are created.
 See also, the Life size
"Supreme Sultan" created for the American Saddlebred Museum.
Sculptor Info:
Horse Artist - Four Decades of
the Art of
Bronze Horses by Patricia Crane
Bio of Sculptor Patricia Crane
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