The Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of Saint…
1254 CE
The Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of Saint Mark, a set of Roman or Greek bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga, date from late Classical Antiquity and have been attributed to the Greek sculptor Lysippus, although this has not been widely accepted.
The horses, which by some accounts had once adorned the Arch of Trajan, were long displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and in 1204 Doge Enrico Dandolo had sent them to Venice as part of the loot sacked from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade.
They are installed on the terrace of the façade of the city’s St. Mark's Basilica in 1254. (Due to the effects of atmospheric pollution, the original quadriga will be moved inside and replaced with a replica in the 1980s. The original horses are displayed just inside the basilica from the terrace.)