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| The Horses of Helios | |
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.jpg) The sculpture in 2010 | |
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| Artist | Rudy Weller |
| Year | 1992 (1992) |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | Bronze |
| Subject |
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| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°30′36″N0°08′00″W / 51.509977°N 0.133413°W /51.509977; -0.133413 |
The Horses of Helios, also known asThe Four Bronze Horses of Helios,[1] is abronze sculpture of four horses byRudy Weller. It is one half of a commission installed in 1992 when the adjacentCriterion Theatre was refurbished. The other half, theDaughters of Helios orThree Graces, is a sculpture of three women leaping off the building six stories above.
The Horses of Helios comprises three bronze elements with dark patina: one pair of horses weighing approximately 4 tons, and two single horses. The four rearing horses appear to be bursting from the water of a fountain. It depictsAethon,Eous,Phlegon, andPyrois - the four horses ofHelios, Greek god of the sun.[1]
The sculpture was installed in 1991 in a fountain under a canopy at the base of the building at 1Jermyn Street, on the corner wherePiccadilly meetsHaymarket, nearPiccadilly Circus in London.[2] The building is adjacent to theCriterion Theatre, and was installed when the theatre was refurbished.
TheDaughters of Helios or Three Graces depicts the threeCharites -Aglaea,Euphrosyne, andThalia - who in some accounts are the daughters of Helios and the naiadAegle. The three female figures are made from gold-leaf-covered aluminium. They are installed at roof level, as if leaping off the 6th floor of the building immediately above the horses below.
From at least December 2020, the sculpture was behind a security fence and the fountain was not operating.[3] At the end of 2024 the fence was removed, and the fountain now sometimes operates.
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Dec 2020 Not sure if it's a COVID-19 thing but when I visited the horses were enclosed with a big barrier in front of them and the fountain was not working either.
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 Fig. 1. (pg. 84),An Ovid Reader: Selections from Seven Works (2014) |
