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Quadriga

{{Short description|Chariot drawn by four horses}}

{{Other uses}}

{{Wiktionary}}

File:Horses of Basilica San Marco bright.jpg in Venice]]

A quadriga is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast and favoured for chariot racing in classical antiquity and the Roman Empire. The word derives from the Latin {{lang|la|quadrigae}}, a contraction of {{lang|la|quadriiugae}}, from {{linktext|quadri-}}: four, and {{linktext|iugum}}: yoke. In Latin the word {{lang|la|quadrigae}} is almost always used in the pluralAccording to Aulus Gellius [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0072:book=19:chapter=8&highlight=quadriga#note6 19.8], Julius Caesar considered it incorrect to use the word in the singular. and usually refers to the team of four horses rather than the chariot they pull.Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary, s.v. [https://logeion.uchicago.edu/quadrigae quadrigae]. In Greek, a four-horse chariot was known as {{lang|grc|τέθριππον}} {{grc-transl|τέθριππον}}.Liddell, Scott, Jones Greek Lexicon, s.v. [https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%84%CE%AD%CE%B8%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%80%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%82 τέθριππος].

The four-horse abreast arrangement in a quadriga is distinct from the more common four-in-hand array of two horses in the front plus two horses behind those.

Quadrigae were raced in the Ancient Olympic Games and other contests. They are represented in profile pulling the chariot of gods and heroes on Greek vases and in bas-relief. During the festival of the Halieia, the ancient Rhodians would sacrifice a quadriga-chariot by throwing it into the sea.Farnell, Lewis, The Cults of the Greek States Vol. ΙV, Cambridge University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-108-01546-2}}, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2NQF-MSICWEC&pg=PA20 20, note b]. The quadriga was adopted in ancient Roman chariot racing.

Quadrigas were emblems of triumph. Victory or Fame are often depicted as the triumphant woman driving it. In classical mythology, the quadriga is the chariot of the gods. The god of the Sun Helios, often identified with Apollo, the god of light, was depicted driving his quadriga across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispersing the night.Smith, s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DH%3Aentry+group%3D6%3Aentry%3Dhelios-bio-1 Helios]

File:Rilievo da monumento onorario di Marco Aurelio trionfo, 176-180.JPG celebrating his Roman triumph in 176 AD over the enemies of the Marcomannic Wars, from his now destroyed triumphal arch in Rome, Capitoline Museums, 176–180 AD]]

Classical sculpture

File:BnF MS Gr510 folio 69 verso - detail - Triumph of Joseph.jpg from the Paris Gregory, a 9th-century Greek manuscript, Bibliothèque nationale de France]]

{{main article|Horses of Saint Mark}}

Modern sculptural quadrigas are based on the four bronze Horses of Saint Mark or the "Triumphal Quadriga", a set of equine Roman or Greek sculptures.

Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society to the Legislature of the State of New York, Volume 18, by American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1913, page 344

{{qn|date=April 2016}}

Their age is disputed. Originally erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, possibly on a triumphal arch, they are now in St Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Venetian Crusaders looted these sculptures in the Fourth Crusade, which dates them to at least 1204, and placed them on the terrace of St Mark's Basilica. In 1797, Napoleon carried the quadriga off to Paris. They were returned after Napoleon's fall. Due to the effects of atmospheric pollution, the original quadriga was retired to a museum and replaced with a replica in the 1980s.

Quadrigae also appear on the frieze of the Libyco-Punic Mausoleum of Dougga, which dates to the 2nd century BC.

File:Ilion---metopa.jpg|Helios in his chariot, early 4th century BC, Athena's temple, Ilion

File:Lucanian fresco tomb painting depicting a quadriga, 340-330 BC, Paestum Archaeological Museum (14416577639).jpg|Lucanian fresco from Paestum depicting a quadriga, 340–330 BC (National Archaeological Museum of Paestum)

File:Paestum Quadriga1.JPG|A Lucanian fresco from Paestum depicting a quadriga, 4th century BC

File:Detail of Mausolée libyco-punique.jpg|A frieze on the 2nd-century BC Libyco-Punic Mausoleum of Dougga

File:Bulla d'oro con tinia, giove e minerva su quadriga alata, da vulci, 350 ac ca. 02.JPG|Jupiter and Minerva riding a quadriga drawn by pegasi on a 4th-century BC gold Etruscan bulla, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

File:Bodh Gaya quadriga relief.jpg|A relief of a quadriga of Sun god Surya at Bodh Gaya, India

File:0458 - Roma, Museo d. civiltà romana - Sarcofago Mattei Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 12-Apr-2008.jpg|Apollo as the Sun god. Cast of the sarcofago matti ({{Circa|220 AD}}), Museum of Roman Civilization

File:8721 - Roma, museo civiltà Romana - Sarcofago di Stilicone - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 12-Apr-2008.jpg|Detail from a plaster cast of the late 4th-century so-called Sarcophagus of Stilicho, Museum of Roman Civilization

File:Echiquier de Charlemagne quadrige=tour CdM.jpg|An 11th-century rook from Southern Italy in the form of Charlemagne in a quadriga, from the Charlemagne chessmen, Cabinet des Médailles

Variations

Though quadrigae were usually drawn by horses, occasionally, other animals or mythological creatures were employed in spectacles and in art. Elephants were sometimes used to draw quadrigae in the Roman imperial period, and more frequently elephant quadrigae were depicted on coins and other official images. In art and sculpture, quadrigae ridden in by the gods were appropriate to their characters; Neptune's quadriga was drawn, for example, by hippocampi (mythological sea-horses).

File:Bardo(js)052.jpg|The triumph of Neptune and Venus in a quadriga drawn by hippocampi in a mosaic from Utica in Africa, Bardo National Museum

File:Venus sur un char tiré par des élpéhants - Pompéi - Atelier des Feutriers.jpg|Venus riding in a quadriga drawn by elephants, 1st-century AD fresco from Pompeii

File:Medaglione di diocleziano e massimiano ercole, oro, con quadriga di elefanti, soldati e vittoria.JPG|Medallion of the co-augusti Diocletian and Maximian ({{Reign|285|305}}) riding in a quadriga drawn by elephants and crowned by Victory

File:9595 - Milano - Museo archeologico - Patera di Parabiago - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 13 Mar 2012.jpg|Cybele and Attis riding on a quadriga drawn by lions on the 4th-century Parabiago plate, Archaeological Museum of Milan

File:Sculpture Kurfürstendamm 24 (Charl) Buddy Bär 10 Jahre Neues Kranzler Eck.jpg|Buddy Bear Quadriga in Berlin, Kurfürstendamm 21

Modern quadrigas

Some of the most significant full-size free-standing sculptures of quadrigas include, in approximate chronological order:

Gallery

File:Brandenburg Gate Quadriga at Night.jpg|Brandenburg Gate Quadriga at night

File:Roma Vittoriano - Quadriga dell'Unità.jpg|The Quadriga dell'Unità at Vittoriano, Rome

File:London-Wellington-Arch-P1130943.jpg|Quadriga, Wellington Arch, London

File:Triomfboog Jubelpark 4.JPG|Brabant Raising the National Flag or Quadriga of Brabant, Parc du Cinquantenaire, Brussels

File:Peace riding in a triumphal chariot Bosio Carrousel - 2012-05-28.jpg|Quadriga, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Paris

File:Teatr Wielki w Warszawie p7 3.jpg|Quadriga, Grand Theatre, Warsaw

File:Moscow 05-2017 img27 Bolshoy Theatre quadriga.jpg|A quadriga sculpted by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg at Bolshoi Theater

File:Quadriga at the Columbian World's Fair.jpeg|Quadriga by Daniel Chester French, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893

File:Progress of the State St. Paul 5.jpg|Daniel Chester French and Edward Clark Potter, Minnesota State Capitol, 1905

File:Arco della Pace - panoramio.jpg|The Seiugae of the Arch of Peace in Milan

File:Quadriga - Barcelona - Spain - Europe.JPG|Quadriga in the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona

File:JMRWayneCoBldg2.jpg|Wayne County Building, Detroit, Michigan, by J. Massey Rhind

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Quadriga}}

External links

  • {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Quadriga}}
  • [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/quadrigae.html Quadriga] Encyclopaedia Romana. University of Chicago
  • [http://www.xs4all.nl/~sp88k/Coin/Traveler/Objects/Quadriga.htm Quadriga]
  • {{in lang|de}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20040803035226/http://www.berlin.de/tourismus/sehenswuerdigkeiten/00022.html Berlin.de: Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, Quadriga]

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Category:Chariots

Category:Architectural sculpture

Category:Ancient chariot racing

Category:History of sculpture

Category:Ancient Roman vehicles

Category:Helios