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 quadrigae, a contraction of quadriiugae, from quadri-: four, and iugum: yoke. In Latin the word quadrigae is almost always used in the plural and usually refers to the team of four horses rather than the chariot they pull. In Greek, a four-horse chariot was known as τέθριππον téthrippon.
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. 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.
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Classical sculpture
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.
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.
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).
Modern quadrigas
Some of the most significant full-size free-standing sculptures of quadrigas include, in approximate chronological order:
1793 – The Berlin Quadriga was designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow in 1793 as the Quadriga of Victory, perhaps as a symbol of peace, represented by the olive wreath carried by Victory. Located atop the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, it was seized by Napoleon during his occupation of Berlin in 1806, and taken to Paris. It was returned to Berlin by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher in 1814. Her olive wreath was supplemented with an Iron Cross. The statue suffered severe damage during the Second World War. The association of the Iron Cross with Prussian militarism convinced the Communist government of East Germany to remove this aspect of the statue after the war. The iron cross was restored after German reunification in 1990.
c. 1815 – The Carrousel quadriga is situated atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, France. The arch was built to commemorate the victories of Napoleon. The quadriga was sculpted by Baron François Joseph Bosio to commemorate the Restoration of the Bourbons. The restoration is represented by an allegorical goddess driving a quadriga, with gilded Victories accompanying it on each side.
1819–1829 – The quadriga on the General Staff Building on the Palace Square in Saint Petersburg
1828–1832 – The quadriga on the Alexandrinsky Theater, in Saint Petersburg
c. 1841 – The panther-driven quadriga on the Semperoper opera house in Dresden
1845–1848 – The quadriga on top of Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen by Herman Wilhelm Bissen and Stephan Ussing
c. 1850 – The quadriga on the Bolshoi, above the portico of the Bolshoi Theatre, designed by sculptor Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg
c. 1852 – The Siegestor (Victory Gate) in Munich is topped by a lion quadriga created by Martin von Wagner.