The horses of Saint Mark

A topographical cabinet card showing the four horses of Saint Mark, a replica of the triumphal Quadriga captured in Constantinople in 1204 and carried to Venice as a trophy.

Photographed by Carlo Ponti of Venice.

Carlo Ponti studied photography in Paris in the 1840s. In 1852, he obtained a license to produce and sell photographs in Venice. He ran the first of the big photographic businesses in the city, producing albums with architectural views of great artistic sensitivity. He was also the inventor of camera lenses suitable for panoramic photography.