The presence of the horse in Botero’s oeuvre is as continuous as its depiction throughout art history, a figure that has been used since Antiquity to signify nobility, power, physical prowess and glory. From the equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius on Capitoline Hill in Rome to Picasso’s screaming beast in ‘Guernica’ (1937), the horse has been the companion of man through the rise and fall of civilizations.