Half-man, half-horse, the centaurs were said to inhabit remote wooded areas. In much of Greek art they appear in combat with humans and, by implication, are the antithesis of civilized man. The classic rendering of this subject appears in the metopes of the Parthenon in Athens. It is, however, already fully presented in this bronze statuette. The outcome of the conflict is indicated by the end of the spear preserved in the centaur's left flank and by the greater height of the man.
Said to be from Olympia (Mertens 1985, p. 19).
From 1906, collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, purchased on the art market, Paris; acquired December 17, 1917, gift of J. Pierpont Morgan.
Sambon, A. 1906. "Bronzes et terres cuites." Le musée: Revue d'art mensuelle 3: 429, fig. 3.
Baur, P. V. C. 1912. Centaurs in Ancient Art: The Archaic Period. Berlin: K. Curtius, p. 79, fig. 15.
Smith, C. H. 1913. Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan: Bronzes, Antique Greek, Roman, etc., including Some Antique Objects in Gold and Silver. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, pp. 32-33, no. 80, ill.
Richter, G. M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 43-44, fig. 23.
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. 1937. Master Bronzes: Selected from Museums and Collections in America. Buffalo, N.Y., no. 62, ill.
Bothmer, D. von. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki. Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik, no. 87.
Hampe, R., and E. Simon. 1980. Un millénaire d'art grec, 1600-600. Fribourg: Office du Livre, p. 234, pls. 380, 381.
Mertens, J. R. 1985. "Greek Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." MMA Bulletin, n.s., 43, no. 2: 18-19, no. 7.
Strouse, J. 2000. "J. Pierpont Morgan: Financier and Collector." MMA Bulletin, n.s., 57, no. 3: 42, no. 48.
Lebessi, A. 2002. To iero tou Erme kai tes Aphrodites ste Syme Biannou. Vol. 3, Ta Chalkina anthropomorpha eidolia. Athens, pp. 227, 253.
Hemingway, S. 2003. In The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, edited by J. M. Padgett. Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, pp. 133-36, no. 13.
Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 415, no. 33, ill. p. 50.
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