Aquadriga is a car orchariot drawn by fourhorses abreast and favoured forchariot racing inclassical antiquity and theRoman Empire. The word derives from theLatinquadrigae, a contraction ofquadriiugae, fromquadri-: four, andiugum: yoke. In Latin the wordquadrigae is almost always used in the plural[1] and usually refers to the team of four horses rather than the chariot they pull.[2] In Greek, a four-horse chariot was known asτέθριππονtéthrippon.[3]
The four-horse abreast arrangement in aquadriga is distinct from the more commonfour-in-hand array of two horses in the front plus two horses behind those.
Quadrigas were emblems of triumph.Victory orFame are often depicted as the triumphant woman driving it. Inclassical mythology, thequadriga is the chariot of the gods. Thegod of the SunHelios, often identified withApollo, the god of light, was depicted driving hisquadriga across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispersing the night.[5]
VenetianCrusaders looted these sculptures in theFourth Crusade, which dates them to at least 1204, and placed them on the terrace ofSt Mark's Basilica.In 1797,Napoleon carried thequadriga off to Paris. They were returned after Napoleon's fall. Due to the effects of atmospheric pollution, the originalquadriga was retired to a museum and replaced with a replica in the 1980s.
Thoughquadrigae were usually drawn by horses, occasionally, other animals or mythological creatures were employed in spectacles and in art. Elephants were sometimes used to drawquadrigae in theRoman imperial period, and more frequently elephantquadrigae were depicted on coins and other official images. In art and sculpture,quadrigae ridden in by the gods were appropriate to their characters; Neptune'squadriga was drawn, for example, byhippocampi (mythological sea-horses).
c. 1852 – TheSiegestor (Victory Gate) inMunich is topped by a lionquadriga created by Martin von Wagner.
1868 – Thequadriga on theducal palace inBraunschweig was destroyed in 1944 during theSecond World War. It was reconstructed in 2008 and is considered the largest one in Europe.
1912 – The Wellington ArchQuadriga is situated atop theWellington Arch in London, England. It was designed byAdrian Jones. The sculpture shows a small boy, the son ofLord Michelham, the man who funded the sculpture, leading thequadriga, with Peace descending upon it from heaven.
1919–1923 – The formerBanco di Bilbao headquarters at no. 16Calle de Alcalá inMadrid, now part ofBanco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, features twoquadrigas on a commercial building. The building was designed byRicardo Bastida, with the sculptor of the chariot Higinio Basterras, and other sculptures by Quentin de la Torre. The charioteers are helmeted men standing on the handrails of the chariots. Height to plinth: about 87 feet (27 meters).
2002 – TheWarsaw'sGrand Theatre features aquadriga reflecting the originalAntonio Corazzi's 1833 plans for the building, but not commissioned and executed until 2002.
^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
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