Historical Treasures

statues that have seen many times and places, constantinople, possibly 2ce

The Horses of Saint Mark

The Horses of Saint Mark are a set of inanimate statues and yet they have still managed to gallop across great swathes of Europe over many centuries. Best known for having gracefully adorned the loggia of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, their true origin remains unknown but their fascinating journey more than makes up for it.

Historians once thought they were made by the Greek sculptor Lysippos in the 4th century BCE but this has since been revised. There is now a suggestion that Greek craftsmen sculpted them in Constantinople in the second century CE and that they could have been commissioned by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.

More certain is that they were put on display in what could become the Byzantine capital, perhaps at the northern end of the Hippodrome of Constantinople. For it was during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, which devastated the city, that the Horses were looted by the Venetians and

taken to Venice where they would be stored for several decades.

Eventually added to the Basilica’s facade, they remained in place for six centuries, only to be removed and taken to Paris in 1798 following the fall of the Republic of Venice at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte. They were then placed atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel but ceded to the Austrian Empire after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Promptly returned to Venice, they once again assumed their theatrical, graceful and iconic position.

Quite why these beautiful, realistic-looking statues are so revered is obvious to all who see them. Their craftsmanship has survived trying circumstance; their majestic position has bore witness to key historical events. Romans considered the horse to be a symbol of the continuity of life and to represent power: these statues certainly strike a sense of awe.

They were removed and temporarily sent to the Palazzo Venezia in Rome during World War I and they were hidden in the Benedictine monastery Praglia Abbey in 1942, such has been the desire to protect them. Attention turned to conservation in the 1970s and they were taken down in 1981. Today, they reside inside St Mark’s Basilica with exact replicas

braving the elements outside.

“quite why These beautiful statues are so revered is obvious To all who see Them ”