''Battle of the Centaurs'' is a
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
sculpture by the
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
artist
Michelangelo, created around 1492. It was the last work Michelangelo created while under the
patronage of
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...
, who died shortly after its completion. Inspired by a classical relief created by
Bertoldo di Giovanni
Bertoldo di Giovanni (after 1420, in Poggio a Caiano – 28 December 1491, in Florence) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and medallist.
Life
Bertoldo was a pupil of Donatello. He worked in Donatello's workshop for many years, completing ...
, the marble sculpture represents the mythic battle between the
Lapith
The Lapiths (; grc, Λαπίθαι) are a group of legendary people in Greek mythology, whose home was in Thessaly, in the valley of the Peneus and on the mountain Pelion.
Mythology
Origin
The Lapiths were an Aeolian tribe who, like the Myr ...
s and the
Centaurs. A popular subject of art in ancient Greece, the story was suggested to Michelangelo by the
classical scholar
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
and poet
Poliziano
Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...
. The sculpture is exhibited in the
Casa Buonarroti
Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence, Italy. The building was a property owned by the sculptor Michelangelo, which he left to his nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Mi ...
in Florence, Italy.
''Battle of the Centaurs'' was a remarkable sculpture in several ways, presaging Michelangelo's future sculptural direction. Michelangelo had departed from the then current practices of working on a discrete plane to work multidimensionally. It was also the first sculpture Michelangelo created without the use of a
bow drill
A bow drill is a simple hand-operated type of tool, consisting of a rod (the ''spindle'' or ''drill shaft'') that is set in rapid rotary motion by means of a cord wrapped around it, kept taut by a bow which is pushed back and forth with one han ...
and the first sculpture to reach such a state of completion with the marks of the
subbia chisel left to stand as a final surface. Whether intentionally left unfinished or not, the work is significant in the tradition of "
non finito
''Non finito'' is a sculpting technique meaning that the work is unfinished. Italian in etymology, it literally means "not finished". ''Non finito'' sculptures appear unfinished because the artist only sculpts part of the block, the figure someti ...
" sculpting technique for that reason. Michelangelo regarded it as the best of his early works, and a visual reminder of why he should have focused his efforts on sculpture.
Background
Michelangelo, at 16, was working under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici when he sculpted the ''Battle of the Centaurs'', although the work was not commissioned but created for himself.
The work reflected what was then a current fashion for reproducing ancient themes.
Specifically, Michelangelo was inspired by a relief that had been produced for Lorenzo by Bertoldo di Giovanni, a work in bronze that hung in the
Medici palace.
Michelangelo chose to work in marble rather than the more expensive medium of bronze so as to keep down costs.
Bertoldo's work, The ''Equestrian Battle in the Ancient Manner''—also known as ''Battle (with Hercules)''—was a recreation of a damaged Roman battle
sarcophagus and required liberal imagination to fill in the gaps left by the damaged original.
Bertoldo took other liberties with his source material and seems to have himself been inspired by the
Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Antonio del Pollaiuolo ( , , ; 17 January 1429/14334 February 1498), also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo (also spelled Pollaiolo), was an Italian painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith during the Italian Rena ...
engraving ''
Battle of the Nudes''.
The young sculptor never finished the work.
While a number of biographies have attributed this to the loss of power of the
Medici family, Eric Scigliano, a biographer of the sculptor, argues that Michelangelo had plenty of time to finish the sculpture if he had chosen to and points out that this was only the first of several "non finito" sculptures, preceding the ''
Taddei Tondo
The ''Taddei Tondo'' or ''The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John'' is a marble relief tondo (circular composition) of the Madonna and Child and the infant Saint John the Baptist, by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti ...
'' and ''
Pitti Tondo
The ''Pitti Tondo'' ( Tondo Pitti) is a marble relief of the Virgin and Child by Michelangelo in round or tondo form. It was made between 1503 and 1504 and is now in the Museo nazionale del Bargello in Florence.
History
The tondo was made in ...
''.
He also notes that Michelangelo expressed no dissatisfaction with the work.
Whether or not the sculpture was intentionally left incomplete, Michelangelo regarded this sculpture as the best of his early works.
He kept it for the rest of his life, though he destroyed or abandoned many of his other pieces. He remarked to his biographer
Ascanio Condivi that looking at it made him regret the time he had spent in pursuits other than sculpture.
[Scigliano (2005), 44.]
Subject and theme
According to Condivi, the poet Poliziano suggested the specific subject to Michelangelo, and recounted the story to him.
The battle depicted takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of
Pirithous
Pirithous (; grc-gre, Πειρίθοος or , derived from ; also transliterated as Perithous), in Greek mythology, was the King of the Lapiths of Larissa in Thessaly, as well as best friend to Theseus.
Biography
Pirithous was a son of "h ...
.
Pirithous, king of the Lapiths, had long clashed with the neighboring Centaurs. To mark his good intentions Pirithous invited the Centaurs to his wedding to
Hippodamia (part of whose name, "Hippo," ''Ιππο'', literally translates as "horse", which may suggest some connection to them).
[Scigliano (2005), 43.] Some of the Centaurs over-imbibed at the event, and when the bride was presented to greet the guests, she so aroused the intoxicated centaur
Eurytion Eurytion (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυτίων, "widely honoured") or Eurythion (Εὐρυθίων) was a name attributed to several individuals in Greek mythology:
* Eurytion, the king of Phthia.
*Eurytion, a Centaur of Arcadia who demanded to marr ...
that he leapt up and attempted to carry her away.
This led not only to an immediate clash, but to a year-long war, before the defeated Centaurs were expelled from
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...
to the northwest.
The myth was a popular subject for Greek sculpture and painting.
The Greek sculptors of the school of
Pheidias
Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...
perceived the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs as symbolic of the great conflict between order and chaos and, more specifically, between the civilized Greeks and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
"
barbarians".
Battles between Lapiths and Centaurs were depicted in the sculptured friezes on the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
and on the
Temple of Zeus at
Olympia.
Scigliano suggests that Michelangelo's ''Battle of the Centaurs'' also reflects the themes of "Greeks over barbarians" and "civilization over savagery", but in Michelangelo's work he sees, in addition, the triumph of "stone over flesh".
He notes that in the work itself, Michelangelo depicts his combatants using rocks against one another, and suggests that the sculptor could not have missed the coincidence that the name of the human fighters—Lapith—reflects the Latin word for stone (''lapis'') and the Italian word for stone plaque (''lapide'').
Composition and technique
The relief consists of a mass of nude figures writhing in combat, placed underneath a roughed-out strip in which the artist's chisel marks remain visible. Art historian
Howard Hibbard
Benjamin Howard Hibbard, Jr. (May 23, 1928 – October 29, 1984) was an American art historian and educator. Hibbard was Professor of Italian Baroque Art at Columbia University.
Career
A native of Madison, Hibbard was born to Margaret and Benja ...
says that Michelangelo has obscured the centaurs, as most of the figures are represented from the waist up. Part of one of the few identifiable centaurs is visible in the bottom center, his leg extending between the legs of the twisting figure above him and his rump pinning another to the ground.
According to Hibbard, Michelangelo has obscured a lone female figure in the work.
[Hibbard (1984), 24.] The attempt to abduct Hippodamia had been the provocation for the brawl, however, and she is given a central location in the sculpture by Michelangelo. Her position balances the composition by placement similar to that of the twisted figure on the left. Her body also is twisting. They are equidistant from the edges of the composition. She is one of only two figures whose full body is displayed in the work. They both are displayed from head to toe. She can be seen among the figures in the center right, grasping the arm of one of her assailants, who has grabbed her hair. Her head, arms, back, hip, left leg, and left foot are displayed prominently. Another assailant, placed behind her, has his arm around her torso.
''Battle of the Centaurs'' was an early turning point and a harbinger of Michelangelo's future sculptural technique.
The Michelangelo biographers, Antonio Forcellino and Allan Cameron, say that Michelangelo's relief, while created in a classical tradition, departed significantly from the techniques established by such masters as
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptister ...
and
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance s ...
. Rather than working on discrete, parallel planes as his predecessors had done, Michelangelo carved his figures dynamically, within "infinite" planes. Forcellino and Cameron describe this break with modern practice as Michelangelo's "own personal revolution", and they point specifically to the left of the relief where a twisting figure becomes "something of an artistic manifesto."
[Forcellino and Cameron (2009), 32–33.] Particularly striking is the composition of the figure's upper limbs, which deviate from the carefully articulated norms. Also remarkable, according to them, is the manner in which Michelangelo sculpted independently of his preparatory drawings, freeing him from the constraints of two-dimensional vision and allowing him to merge the figures fluidly and multi-dimensionally.
''Battle of the Centaurs'' was also the first sculpture for which Michelangelo eschewed the use of the bow drill.
Finer details of the relief were probably achieved with the use of a toothed chisel called a
gradina.
The smooth figures of the foreground contrast strongly with the roughly hewn background, created with a subbia chisel.
A traditional sculptor's tool, the subbia produced punched marks that had never before been left as a final surface in a work completed to this degree.
Georgia Illetschko insisted in 2004, these unfinished surfaces are "a conscious compositional element", and not due to a lack of time.
According to Scigliano, it was an important development in the non finito sculpting technique.
File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 15.JPG, View from a left angle
File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 04.JPG, Right side, detail
File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 10.JPG, Men holding rocks
File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 12.JPG, Twisting figure on the left, right view
See also
*
List of works by Michelangelo
The following is a list of works of painting, sculpture and architecture by the Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of The Centaurs (Michelangelo)
Sculptures by Michelangelo
1492 sculptures
Marble sculptures in Italy
Nude sculptures
Centaurs