The equestrian monument, portraying a leader mounted on a horse, is an enduring symbol of power. In the decades after World War II, the Italian sculptor Marino Marini became fixated on the form and created dozens of variations in different sizes. But his portrayals emphasize weakness.

In Marini’s iterations of the sculpture, the horse becomes increasingly restless and finally throws the anonymous rider from its back. “My aim,” he explained, “is to render palpable the last stages in the dissolution of a myth, the myth of the heroic and victorious individual.”