This figural group of a man locked in combat with a centaur is attributed to a Laconian Geometric workshop and may come from Olympia. The centaur is represented as a smaller version of his human opponent, but with the addition of the body and hind legs of a horse. The outcome of the fight is indicated by the weapon-head projecting from the centaur’s left side. Recent analysis has revealed that the man’s eyes were originally inlaid with silver, which would have wonderfully contrasted with the centaur’s eyes, inlaid with reddish iron.
Figural groups are rare in Geometric art, and this statuette is among the finest. The lack of attributes and parallels for the scene at this early date makes it difficult to identify the figures with certainty. According to one hypothesis, the scene likely depicts Herakles fighting the centaur Nessos in the middle of the Euenos river, after the monster tried to rape Dejanira, Herakles’ wife. The ornamentation under the base, with a double central zigzag pattern, may well reference the flowing waters of the river.
Decorated base-plates—with perforated and relief geometric patterns—are typical of such statuettes during the later part of the eighth century BCE. This feature served as a stand but might also have been used as some kind of early stamp or seal.
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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
Object 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. 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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Zimmermann, 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. 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.
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Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 2, pp. 50–51, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hemingway, Seán and Sarah Lepinski. 2025. "Chroma : Ancient Sculpture in Color and Anceint Polychromy at The Met." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. p. 34, n. 21, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
