The four-horse abreast arrangement in quadriga is distinct from the more common four-in-hand array of two horses in the front and two horses in the back.
Quadrigas were emblems of triumph; Victory or Fame often are depicted as the triumphant woman driving it. In classical mythology, the quadriga is the chariot of the gods; the god of the sunHelios (often identified with Apollo, the god of light) was depicted driving his quadriga across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispersing the night.[2]
The word quadriga may refer to the chariot alone, the four horses without it, or the combination.
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, the only representation of a quadriga to survive from the classical world, and the pattern for all that follow.[3][need quotation to verify]
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, but, after Napoleon's fall, in 1815, the horses were returned to Venice by Louis XVIII, King of France. The legitimate king did not want to be the illegitimate owner of a treasure. Due to the effects of atmospheric pollution, the original quadriga was retired to a museum and replaced with a replica in the 1980s.
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).
c. 1815 – The Carrousel quadriga is situated atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, France. The arch itself was built to commemorate the victories of Napoleon, but 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.
1868 – The Quadriga on the ducal palace in Braunschweig was destroyed in 1944 during the Second World War. It was reconstructed in 2008 and is considered the largest one in Europe
1888 - Quadriga de l'Aurora as part of the Font de la cascada that is in Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona. Erected by Josep Fontserè (with possible contributions by the young Antoni Gaudí).
1912 – The Wellington Arch Quadriga is situated atop the Wellington Arch in London, England. It was designed by Adrian Jones. The sculpture shows a small boy (actually the son of Lord Michelham, the man who funded the sculpture) leading the quadriga, with Peace descending upon it from heaven.
1919–1923 – The former Banco di Bilbao headquarters at no. 16 Calle de Alcalá in Madrid, now part of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, features two quadrigas on a commercial building. The building was designed by Ricardo 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 – The Warsaw's Grand Theatre features a quadriga reflecting the original Antonio Corazzi's 1833 plans for the building, but not commissioned and executed until 2002.
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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