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Theseus Slaying a Centaur
Antoine-Louis Barye
France, 1796-1875
About 1855
Bronze
49 inches high
Gift of the Louis W. Hill family 55.4

• The Athenians admired Theseus (THEE-see-us) because he possessed intellectual strength as well as physical strength.
• Greek mythology and art experienced a great revival in much of Europe during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
• The twisting pose and powerful emotion of Barye's (BAY-ree) sculpture of Theseus epitomize the French ROMANTIC STYLE.

Theseus was the son of Aegeus (EE-GEE-us), the king of Athens, and of Aethra (ETH-rah), daughter of the king of Troezen (TRO-zhen). Remarkably intelligent and very strong, Theseus accomplished many amazing tasks. He slayed the mighty Minotaur (MIN-a-tor) in the Labyrinth of Crete (CREET), and repulsed an invasion of Athens by the Amazons, a race of female warriors.

Pirithous (pi-RITH-oh-us), King of the Lapiths (LAP-iths), heard of Theseus's reputation and wanted to see for himself if Theseus was indeed as brave and clever as people said. So, one day when Theseus was herding his cattle near Marathon, Pirithous made a raid on his herd. A fight broke out at once. However, Pirithous overcome with admiration for Theseus, surrendered and humbly told him that he would accept any punishment Theseus chose. But Theseus asked only for his friendship in return.

Some time later, Pirithous invited his friend Theseus to his wedding to Hippodamia (hippo-DAME-ee-ah). Among the many wedding guests were the Centaurs (SEN-tars), neighbors of Pirithoüs. The Centaurs had the bodies of horses and the torsos and heads of men. They were an unruly bunch! They drank too much wine and started to make trouble. When they tried to kidnap Hippodamia, Theseus quickly intervened, defeating the Centaurs and saving his friend's bride.

Neoclassicism and Romanticism
During the 18th century, the excavation of ancient CLASSICAL ruins in the Roman cities of Herculaneum (her-cue-LANE-ee-um) and Pompeii (pom-PAY) inspired a revived interest in Greek and Roman art and ideas. A new art style called neoclassicism developed. Neoclassicism drew on the art of Greece and Rome and favored themes drawn from classical myths. NEO-CLASSICAL art favors idealized forms, attention to detail, and careful rendering of surface textures. It is calm and restrained. Male nudes are popular neoclassical subjects, and they express the ancient Greek concept of the ideal man as one who, like Theseus, balances physical and intellectual prowess.

Neoclassicism is often considered to be an early phase of the Romantic art movement. Romantic artists frequently looked to faraway places for their subject matter. But, unlike neoclassical art, Romantic art tends to be flamboyantly theatrical and melodramatic.

Antoine-Louis Barye
The theme of man and beast locked in struggle appealed to the Romantic French sculptor Antoine Louis (AN-twon LOO-ee) Barye, who specialized in animal sculpture. Barye regularly studied and sketched living animals in a zoo as well as skeletons and preserved specimens in a natural history museum. He observed dissections and read scholarly papers on a variety of species. He was especially skilled at sculpting carnivorous creatures attacking their prey.

Theseus Slaying a Centaur
The power of Barye's Theseus Slaying a Centaur lies in the brilliant contrasts of man and beast. Theseus is every bit the mythological hero, powerful and restrained. His mouth tightly closed, he calmly looks down at the centaur, who grimaces in pain. The line of the hero's body flows smoothly from his raised right arm into the curves of his out-thrust abdomen and bent knee. In contrast, the centaur's arms, legs, and tail extend in all directions. As in ancient Greek statues of athletes, Theseus's tight curls are idealistically controlled by a head band, while the centaur's long mane flies wildly.

The Romantic artists often depicted the turning point in a tale, as Barye did in this sculpture. Bayre captures the climactic moment when Theseus is about to lower his club to destroy the writhing centaur. The hero's grip on his foe's throat and the centaur's hopeless effort to free himself create a strong sense of tension. As Theseus digs his large toe into the centaur's flank, the animal man stumbles and succumbs. A curving length of cloth falls from the centaur's back onto the foliage below them and through the beast's hind legs. The sinuous flow of this cloth adds to the drama of the scene, while it also subtly counterbalances the angles created by the centaur's bent knee and right elbow and the raised elbow of Theseus.

Barye endowed his figures with the meticulous, IDEALIZED naturalism and attention to detail found in neoclassical sculpture, as well as with the high drama and narrative focus of Romanticism. Through these contrasts, Barye represents not only a specific moment from the myth of Theseus, but also the contest of good against evil, the triumph of civilization over barbarism, and the dominance of intellectual strength over brute force.

Look
1. Can you tell who will win this battle, just by looking at the sculpture? (The human figure: Theseus.) What visual clues has the artist given you to predict the outcome? (Theseus is higher than the Centaur. Theseus's facial expression is calm and determined. The Centaur appears painful and frantic. Theseus appears to have command of his body, while the Centaur's limbs and torso appear twisted and out of control.)

2. Tell the story of Theseus. In the story, Theseus represents good and the Centaur represents the opposite, evil. How has Barye made these two figures look opposite in his sculpture? (Theseus's hair is neat and tidy; the Centaur's hair is wild and messy. Theseus has open eyes and a closed mouth; the Centaur's eyes are closed and his mouth is open. Theseus's body appears centered and compact; the Centaur's limbs and tail fly out into space.)

3. Where is most of the action taking place in this sculpture? (In the area between the heads and shoulders of the two figures.) How has Barye directed our attention to this area? (Centaur's body is tilted upward and curves into the area of the action. The figures interlocking arms curve into each other. Theseus's raised arm suggests an implied movement toward the Centaur's head. Theseus gazes directly at the Centaur's head.)

4. Imagine that the limbs and bodies of these two figures are lines. What kind of lines are they? Are they thick or thin? Are they smooth? Jagged? Bumpy? Do the lines curve, spiral, or are they straight? Where do the lines touch each other? Barye's sculpture implies movement and tension. How do the quality and direction of the sculpture's lines contribute to the implied movement and tension? (Thick, smooth lines sharply curve or angle into one another, implying movement and tension where the lines interact. The bodies of the figures can be seen as twisting or spiraling lines that add to the feeling of tension.)

5. ROMANTIC artists such as Barye paid a great deal of attention to details. Where can you see Barye's attention to detail in his sculpture of Theseus and the Centaur? (Musculature of the two figures; the Centaur's flowing hair, tail, and beard; the facial expressions of the figures.)

2. Sculptures are THREE-DIMENSIONAL. They take up real space, just like you do. When you look at Barye's sculpture in the classroom you are seeing a slide of it - an image projected on a TWO-DIMENSIONAL screen. How else could you turn Barye's three-dimensional sculpture into a two-dimensional image? (Take a picture of it. Make a drawing or painting of it. Flatten it with a steamroller!)

3. Barye was a sculptor who specialized in animals. He studied animals at museums and zoos and liked to show them in dramatic poses. What other stories can you think of that Barye might be interested in? (Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs are confronted by a wolf. The Hare and the Tortoise. Herakles and the Nemean Lion (see Hydria entry). Any stories that contain animals who perform dramatic feats.)

4. Discoveries of ancient ruins during the 18th century made Greek and Roman art and ideas very popular in Europe. Can you think of any modern discoveries, inventions, and technologies that have created a new interest in something? (New technology created new interest in "video" pinball games. New media created a resurgence of interest in neon, Day-Glo colors, and glow-in-the-dark novelty items. New recycling technology sparked an interest in recycling and generated recycling products.)