Colorful inlays once filled the eyes of this bronze man and centaur locked in combat. Scientific analysis has revealed that the man’s eyes were made of silver and the centaur’s, still intact, of dark iron or iron-oxide minerals. The contrast between the two would have been striking. The technique of inlaying various materials to enhance metal sculpture appears very early in Greek art, with special attention given to the eyes.
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X-radiograph showing hollows for inlays in the eyes
Back scattered electron image of the left side of the centaur’s face (left) and the composite X-ray map showing the distribution of the elements copper (red), tin (orange), and iron (green) in the same area. Iron is concentrated in centaur’s inlayed eye.
Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze man and centaur
Period:Late Geometric
Date:ca. 750 BCE
Culture:Greek
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H. 4 3/8 in. (11.10 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.2072
Said to be from Olympia (Mertens 1985, p. 19).
[Until 1906, art market, Paris]; 1906-1913, collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, New York; 1913-1917, estate of J.P. Morgan; acquired in December 1917, gift of J.P. Morgan.
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Baur, Paul Victor Christopher. 1912. Centaurs in Ancient Art: The Archaic Period. p. 79, fig. 15, Berlin: K. Curtius.
Smith, Cecil H. Sir and Librairie Centrale des Beaux-arts. 1913[Librairie centrale des beaux-arts]. Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan: Bronzes, antique Greek and Roman, including some antique objects in gold and silver. no. 80, pp. 32–3, Paris.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 44, fig. 23, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 51–52, fig. 29, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 51–52, fig. 29, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Alexander, Christine. 1939. Early Greek Art: A Picture Book. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alexander, Christine. 1945. "Early Statuettes from Greece." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3(10): p. 242.
Alexander, Christine. 1950. "A Marble Lekythos and the Elgin Athena." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9.2: p. 242.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 51, 345, fig. 13, New Haven: Yale University Press.
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Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 22, 173, pl. 12b, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 2. p. 468, fig. 650, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Yalouris, Nikolaos. 1974. "Three Geometric Figurines." Antike Kunst, 17(1): p. 22, pl. 3.6.
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von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki: Katalog vystavki. no. 13, pl. 2, Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik.
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Heilmeyer, Wolf-Dieter. 1982. Frühgriechische Kunst : Kunst und Siedlung im geometrischen Griechenland. pp. 30, 47, figs. 37–38, Berlin: Gebr. Mann.
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Zimmerman, Jean-Louis. 1989. Les Chevaux de Bronze dans l'Art Géométrique Grec. LAC 60, pp. 231, 261, 270 n. 7, Mayence: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Howard Kathleen. 1994. Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide: Works of Art Selected by Philippe De Montebello. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1997. Vol. 8: Thespiades-Zodiacus. "Typhon," p. 150, no. 27; "Zeus," p. 317, no. 14; "Kentauroi et Kentaurides," p. 682, no. 132, pl. 422, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Picón, Carlos A., Joan R. Mertens, Elizabeth J. Milleker, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Seán Hemingway. 2000. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection 1999–2000." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 58(2): p. 10.
Strouse, Jean and Joan R. Mertens. 2000. "J. Pierpont Morgan: Financier and Collector." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 57(3): pp. 42–43, fig. 48.
Shear, Ione Mylonas. 2002. "Mycenaean Centaurs at Ugarit." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 122: pp. 149–50, pl. 4, C.
Lempesē, Angelikē. 2002. To hiero tou Hermē kai tēs Aphroditēs stē Symē Viannou. III Ta Chalkina Anthropomorpha Eidolia, Vol. 3. pp. 227, 253, Athens: Hē en Athēnais Archaiologikē Hetaireia.
Padgett, J. Michael. 2003. The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art no. 13, pp. 133–36, Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 33, pp. 50, 415, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 2, pp. 50–51, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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