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Lot 1011* - A184 Decorative Arts - Thursday, 22. March 2018, 10.00 AM

PAIR OF BRONZE HORSES,

Renaissance, after the Byzantine Triumphal Quadriga at St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco), Venice, 17th century.
Patinated bronze and blue/green horn. Striding horses on a rectangular pedestal from the Régence with turtle. Bronze mounts and applications. Restorations.
L 18 cm. H (with base) 32 cm.

Provenance:
- from a French collection.

The Horses of Saint Mark (Italian: Cavalli di San Marco), also known as the Triumphal Quadriga, is a set of Roman bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga (a four-horse carriage used for chariot racing). The horses were placed on the facade, on the loggia above the porch, of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, northern Italy after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. They remained there until looted by Napoleon in 1797 but were returned in 1815. The sculptures have been removed from the facade and placed in the interior of St Mark's for conservation purposes, with replicas in their position on the loggia.

An almost identical bronze horse, dated approximately around 1550, was sold by Christie's Paris on 13 June 2017 (Lot No. 30) . Others are part of the Collections of the H. Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (Lot No. 54.50), the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Schloss Pommerfelden. These are depicted in: H.R. Weihrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Braunschweig 1967; Figs. 45-48.

Ref.: W. Bode, The Italian bronze statuettes of the Renaissance, New York 1953; p. 160 (Figs. CXXXIII-1 and CXXXIII-2 - similar bronze horses after the Triumphal Quadriga of the Piazza San Marco from the years 1500/20).


CHF 50 000 / 70 000 | (€ 51 550 / 72 160)

Sold for CHF 55 700 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.