Main entry:

Freeman, Charles.

Title & Author:

The horses of Saint Mark's : a story of triumph in Byzantium, Paris and Venice / Charles Freeman.

Publication:

London : Little, Brown, 2004.

Description:

xiv, 298 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-280) and index.
1. Plundered plunder -- 2. Constantinople : the horses' first home? -- 3. Horses and heroes -- 4. Creating Quadrigae -- 5. Watchers in the Hippodrome -- 6. Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople -- 7. horses arrive at St. Mark's -- 8. Doge or emperor? : the horses, Hippodromes and imperial display -- 9. Venice : the republican community -- 10. search for the horses' origins -- 11. ideal horse? -- 12. horses in an age of Decadimento -- 13. fall of the Venetian republic -- 14. 'To the carrousel!' : the horses triumph in Paris -- 15. Antonio Canova and the return of the horses to Venice -- 16. Greek or Roman? : the nineteenth-century debates -- 17. Fragmented imaginations : the reinvention of Venice -- 18. Denouements -- 19. Envoi : the horses as cultural icons.

Summary:

"In July 1798, a triumphant procession made its way through the streets of Paris. Echoing the parades of Roman emperors centuries before, Napoleon Bonaparte was proudly displaying the spoils of his recent military adventures. There were animals - caged lions and dromedaries - as well as tropical plants, including banana and coconut trees. And among the works of art on show, one stood out : four horses of gilded metal, taken by Napoleon from their home in Venice." "The horses of St. Mark's are among art's finest creations - and certainly one with a story like no other. For these are statues that have found themselves at the heart of European history time and time again: in Constantinople, at its founding and then its sacking in the Fourth Crusade; in Venice, at both the height of its greatness and its fall in 1797; in the Paris of Napoleon; and back in Venice, the most romantic city in the world, for the revolutions of 1848." "Charles Freeman's new book is an account of both the statues and the societies in which they have been displayed. It is a tale that stretches back to the many competing legends of the origins of these exquisite figures. Freeman reveals not only the horses' artistic and historical value, but also their symbolic nature: how the motif of the quadriga - a chariot drawn by four horses - has resonated since classical times."--BOOK JACKET.

ISBN:

0316861189
9780316861182

Subject:

Horses of San Marco History.
Horses of San Marco.
Bronze sculpture, Classical Italy Venice.
Sculpture en bronze antique Italie Venise.
Bronze sculpture, Classical.
Geschichte
Europe History.
Europe Histoire.
Europe.
Italy Venice.
Venedig San Marco Bronzepferde.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 233366
Call No.: NB620.V55 F87 2004
Status: Available