NARRATOR: This work by Antoine-Louis Barye illustrates an episode from the mythological battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs described in book twelve of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The Greek hero Theseus sits astride the centaur Biénor, pinning his head back with one hand while preparing to deliver the death blow with the other. The scale and the mythological subject matter of this piece are unusual for Barye. Barye was best know for small-scale representations of animals, often locked in violent combat. Such subjects were extremely popular with the public and with collectors. But they were considered trivial and undignified by the Academicians, who regularly excluded Barye's submissions from the Salon. Here, Barye makes concessions to official taste by choosing a scene from classical antiquity. He has idealized his figures, ignoring the extreme anatomical realism that typically informs his earlier, more controversial works.