Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli

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Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
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Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, mosaic, c. 130 B.C.E. (Altes Museum, Berlin) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker See this on Smarthistory: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/pair-of-centaurs-fighting-cats-of-prey-from-hadrians-villa.html View this mosaic up close in the Google Art Project

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Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli

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the ancient roman emperor hadrian built the lavish
river nuteiville. and in the dining room
there was a formal deck and we are looking at a fragment
of that, which shows two centaurs and three large cats
and it is made of tiny pieces of natural stone
which must have taken an enormous amount of
patience to create. especially if we consider
that this is a small fragment of the very large floor mosaic.
these are tiny pieces of drawing and they are put together so that
they can create and can be read very clearly
even now that they are pieces of stone. in fact
these kinds of mosaics might give us an indication
of what greek painting looked like. so good a great
painting has come down to us. we know from
from written accounts that the greeks believed that their
painting was the greatest art. we generally think of ancient greek sculpture
and ancient greek architecture. but perhaps thher is painting
and all that the greek themselves pailed the comparison
to the work they did on the walls and yet none of them survived.
the mosaics are really valuable in giving us a sense of what the greeks
had been able to achieve. well i thought about this mosaic is
the drama. we have the centaur, amythical creature
that is half man and half horse. and he is
involved in a battle agains these three wild cats
He raises his arms and is about to toll a rock down
onto a tiger who has atatcked another centaur.
behind him is abother wild cat who has been felled, probably a lion.
you will notice that the centaur is about to
hurl a rock aat the tiger down to his left,
looks up and leapord is about to attack him
so we really have a sense of of split second in time.
its true. in fact if you look at the glances
it is really interesting. our eyes first go from the centaur to the tiger
and we notice that the tiger has just felled another centaur.
the tiger looks back aat the centaur, but the centaur
does not look at the tiger the centaurs eyes have been caught by
the leapord. he knows he is about to throw the
large boulder, which tells us bout the strength of centaurs
but also we realise that he is in danger from the leapord.
so this is the kind of triangular relations
of the glances of the figures. so that centaur that
we see at the centre really expresses physical strength.
but also a sense of his body and concern. yes its intersting
my guess is that the greeks and later the romans
might have identified with the centaur thah the wild cats
usually when we see centaurs, they in battle with
the greeks and the greeks are for those we have sympathy for
the greeks were frothe civilised, where as the
centaurs , who are still half wild are the agressors.
here that is reversed. here our sympathy goes to the centaurs
because of the human qualities
even if they are still half of nature. you know the greeks
and later the romans saw themselves as separate from the chaos of nature.
and here the centaur represents a kind of brutality but nothing
compared to those of the cats.and i think that is
beautifully expressed by the emotion , we see on the
centaurs face. we read that as a complex union of emotion, of worry fear and also of strength.
and of the animal of no emotion. so i think
you are right. we are meant to identify with that figure
at the centre though he is half animal
and he is almost draped over hsi arm. he has actually got
the pelt of the leapord. so there is a good reason for the leapord to be annoyed
you said that this may give an idea of what ancient greek painting looked like
and in this miosaic we see what we see in ancint greek sculpture
this does revive and there is even an intteresting anamoly
qand naturalism. in fact if youlook at the rendering
of this cental creature, which is obviously impossible
this is beautifully rendered that it looks almost possible anatomically.
look at the way in which the abdomen of the man moves into the chest of the horse.
and we can imagine the way the backbone of both the animals might have
united to become one. there is really a sense of believability even in this impossible creature.
and we have a very realisstic vision of the rocky landscape.
these figures have to occupy. the figures of fallen centaur on the left
and fallen lion on the right are foreshortened, helping to create this illusion of space. look at the
beautiful foreshortening in this still operating centaur.
and the way in which the horses legs are going back
in space is really beautifully done and the fact that it is done in stone
makes it even more impressive. that is really a remarkable achievement.
and i would have loved to seen this in it's greater context, in hadrians dining room
in his palace

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