Venice Quadriga No.1 Photograph - Limited Edition of 10

Venice Quadriga No.1 The bronze Horses of Saint Mark, also known as the Triumphal Quadriga, can be found on the facade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice. The sculptures date from around 4th century BC. They arrived in Venice from Constantinople in 1204. In 1797, Napoleon had the horses forcibly removed from the basilica and carried off to Paris, where they were used in the design of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel together with a quadriga. In 1815 the horses were returned to Venice by Captain Dumaresq who fought at the Battle of Waterloo. These overwhelmingly beautiful sculptures are from a time we can hardly imagine, when art and sculpture was a rarity enjoyed only by the rich. Nobody knows who commissioned them, created them, or their original purpose and place. But today they still exist and display incredible craft and design. Most statues are allegorical depictions of stories, people or events. Somewhat like a great book or movie of our cultural era, these monumental immortal works were the great stories of their era and their unveilings would have seen thousands attend in awe. With such profound, mysterious beauty I was captivated and endeavoured to continue their aesthetic story. My work is a reinvention in a medium unimaginable even a few hundred years ago. Note: The ‘Statuesque’ series expresses a long fascination with perception. “Statues in cities are so often almost invisible yet they depict powerful stories and characters from an era when visual information was so rare. Statues have gravity, beauty, craft and hold an eternal value, as symbolic of immortality as anything we create. I endeavour to bring them new context, new life, new perspective”. Laurenson takes a traditional dark room approach, a crafted ‘dodge and burn’ technique, utilising digital technology. Artworks are available as archival reverse prints onto aluminium of exceptional quality.