Murilo Jambeiro de Oliveira
Brazil, January 16, 2026.
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses – U2
I consider this one of the best framing shots on Brazilian TV, when the TV Globo correspondent in Rome keeps the “Quadriga” in the background of her reports. As is known, or at least I’ve reported it to be well known, a “Quadriga” tends to be led by an Angel. Let’s see what Wikipedia says about this entry at the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriga
Quadriga
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Quadriga (disambiguation).
Look up quadriga in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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[1] and usually refers to the team of four horses rather than the chariot they pull.[2] In Greek, a four-horse chariot was known as τέθριππον téthrippon.[3]
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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6][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. 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).
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