Triumphal Quadriga (Horses of Saint Mark) - original horses (2nd or 3rd century)
I always thought the 4 horses that were outside on the upper terrace of St. Mark's were the original horses, but the original horses were removed in the early 1980s due to damage being exposed to the elements and were replaced with exact copies. The original horses have been on display inside at the basilica's museum where I photographed them. The museum officials did not want flash photography used so I set my iso to 12,800(I had no tripod) and removed noise in post-processing.
The horses were sculpted around 2nd or 3rd century AD by Lysippos and the horses were displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople around AD 300ish. In 1204 when Hippodrome was looted by Venetian forces as part of the sack of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade, Doge Enrico Dandolo sent the horses to Venice, where they were installed on the terrace of the facade of St Mark's Basilica in 1254. The collars on the four horses were added in to obscure where the animals' heads had been cut to allow them to be transported from Constantinople to Venice. In 1797, Napoleon had the horses forcibly removed from the basilica and carried off to Paris, where they were used in the design of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel together with a quadriga.
In 1815 the horses were returned to Venice by Captain Dumaresq. He had fought at the Battle of Waterloo and was with the allied forces in Paris where he was selected, by the Emperor of Austria, to take the horses down from the Arc de Triomphe and return them to their original place at St Mark's in Venice. For the skillful manner in which he performed this work the Emperor gave him a gold snuff box with his initials in diamonds on the lid (wikipedia).
Amazing how pristine the horses are considering the adventures they shared together during their lifetime!!
A Beautiful sculpture of the horse which also shows how the ancients revered the horse so long ago.
Saint Mark's, Venice, Italy
Triumphal Quadriga (Horses of Saint Mark) - original horses (2nd or 3rd century)
I always thought the 4 horses that were outside on the upper terrace of St. Mark's were the original horses, but the original horses were removed in the early 1980s due to damage being exposed to the elements and were replaced with exact copies. The original horses have been on display inside at the basilica's museum where I photographed them. The museum officials did not want flash photography used so I set my iso to 12,800(I had no tripod) and removed noise in post-processing.
The horses were sculpted around 2nd or 3rd century AD by Lysippos and the horses were displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople around AD 300ish. In 1204 when Hippodrome was looted by Venetian forces as part of the sack of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade, Doge Enrico Dandolo sent the horses to Venice, where they were installed on the terrace of the facade of St Mark's Basilica in 1254. The collars on the four horses were added in to obscure where the animals' heads had been cut to allow them to be transported from Constantinople to Venice. In 1797, Napoleon had the horses forcibly removed from the basilica and carried off to Paris, where they were used in the design of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel together with a quadriga.
In 1815 the horses were returned to Venice by Captain Dumaresq. He had fought at the Battle of Waterloo and was with the allied forces in Paris where he was selected, by the Emperor of Austria, to take the horses down from the Arc de Triomphe and return them to their original place at St Mark's in Venice. For the skillful manner in which he performed this work the Emperor gave him a gold snuff box with his initials in diamonds on the lid (wikipedia).
Amazing how pristine the horses are considering the adventures they shared together during their lifetime!!
A Beautiful sculpture of the horse which also shows how the ancients revered the horse so long ago.
Saint Mark's, Venice, Italy