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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 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. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

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  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user ∫∫ Greg Boyle  dG dB
    Are there any examples of Greek paintings that have survived from this era? It is odd that the Greeks thought themselves first painters yet we know them for their sculptures and architecture.
    (26 votes)
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    • leaf green style avatar for user FinallyGoodAtMath
      The Pitsa panels are the most important surviving panel paintings from Ancient Greece. They are from around 540–530 BC. The Fayum mummy portraits date from around the same time as Hadrian's Villa (2nd Century AD). They are probably the best examples of Greco-Roman panel painting and are vey striking in how modern they look.
      (31 votes)
  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user NotMyRealUsername
    How come the centaur is using a rock? Isn't the centaurs' chosen weapon a bow and arrow?
    (4 votes)
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  • leafers seed style avatar for user alchelux
    Aren't the centaurs, leopards, tigers and Bacchus all linked to one another in myth? I seem to recall Bacchus depicted walking with both a tiger and leopard.
    Perhaps the look on the centaurs face is realization that he is up against or has displeased his master Bacchus by quarreling with the cats.
    (4 votes)
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  • leaf green style avatar for user Gloria Blanchard
    Not to knock good current research, there are several examples of Greek and Roman sculpture that researchers have attempted to display "as they were originally painted". It has been commented on that the color schemes appeared "bright and garish". (Not my opinion, just quoting here.)

    I think we have it right so far as Egyption color pallette goes - there are plenty of examples. I wonder now, looking at this Centaurs Fighting Cats, if we have the palette more or less right, but lack the nuances of shade and light this mosaic clearly demonstrates. I close my eyes and imagine the white marble of the Parthenon, painted not only with flat brilliant colors, but brilliantly painted with light, shadow and space in gradients of light, clearly defined - as this mosaic is. Any thoughts or continuing research on that?
    (3 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Tatjana Blumfeld
    Why aren't there any greek paintings left? Did the paint peel off? What did they use to make the colors?
    (1 vote)
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    • leaf blue style avatar for user Jeffrey A. Becker
      Paint is a highly fugitive medium. Ancient Greek and Roman painters used pigments derived from a variety of sources - some mineral ores, others organic. In humid environments, the survivability of applied paint is poor. There are numerous sites in the Greek world from which painted evidence survives - houses on the island of Delos, Macedonian tombs at Vergina, Greek-style painting from Ionia, painted architectural fragments from Athens and other sites. Hadrian was a great connoisseur of Greek culture and art, which influenced the decorative program at his villa in Tivoli.
      (4 votes)
  • leaf orange style avatar for user Jeff Kelman
    This video seemed out of place in the "Ancient Rome" section. I believe I also saw this in "Ancient Greece" and it seemed more appropriate there even though this was in Hadrian's Villa. If it is to remain in the "Ancient Rome" section could we please hear something about Rome?
    (1 vote)
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    • starky ultimate style avatar for user Steven Zucker
      Thanks for taking the time to offer these thoughts. I just double checked and this mosaic is indeed adjacent to the other content about Hadiran's Villa. It does not appear in the Greek tutorial, and it is surrounded by 34 other videos and essays all about ancient Roman art and culture.
      (3 votes)
  • male robot hal style avatar for user Robert Hawkins
    The Greeks claim to be great artists, could the truth be that they were in fact great travelers and scholars, taking some from every great culture manifesting themselves as a combination of the best of the best of others art?
    (1 vote)
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  • piceratops tree style avatar for user czamador29
    Does the tiger and the centour symbolize something?
    (1 vote)
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  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Christine Welling
    What is the size of this mosaic portion? And how large would the whole mosaic been on the floor of the villa?
    (1 vote)
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  • leaf green style avatar for user alexzhou2003
    Why do you think this artist has selected the concept that they have? Would it have been relevant to society at the time?
    (0 votes)
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Video transcript

(lighthearted music) Man: The ancient Roman Emperor Hadrian built a lavish villa near Tivoli, and in the dining room, there was a floor mosaic and we're looking at a fragment of that, which shows two centaurs and three large cats. Woman: It's made of tiny pieces of natural stone that must have taken an enormous amount of patience to create. Man: Especially if you consider that this is a small fragment of the very large floor mosaic. These are tiny pieces of [tessoroy], and they're put together so that they really do create a sense of an image that can be read really clearly, even though these are pieces of stone. In fact, these kinds of mosaics might give us an indication of what Greek painting looked like, since so little Greek painting has come down to us. We know from written accounts that the Greeks believed that their painting was their greatest art. We generally thing of ancient Greek sculpture or ancient Greek architecture, or perhaps of a vase painting. But, all of that, according to the Greeks themselves, paled in comparison to the work that they did on walls, and yet, almost none of that survives. So, the mosaic's really valuable in giving us the sense of what the Greeks had been able to achieve. Woman: What I love about this mosaic is the drama. We have a centaur, a mythical creature that's half man, half horse, and he's involved in this battle against these three wild cats; and he raises his arms and is about to hurl a rock down at a tiger who's attacked another centaur. Behind him is another wild cat who's been felled. Man: Probably a lion. Woman: You'll notice that the centaur, while he's about to hurl a rock at the tiger down to his left, looks up at a leopard who's about to attack him. We really have a sense of a split second in time. Man: It's true, in fact, if you look at the glances, it's really interesting, our eye first goes from the centaur to the tiger, and we notice the tiger has just felled another centaur. The tiger looks back at the centaur, but the centaur doesn't look at the tiger; the centaur's eyes have been caught by the leopard. He knows he's about to throw the large boulder, which tells us about the strength of centaurs, but also realizes that he's in real danger from that leopard. This is triangulation of the glances of the figures. Woman: That centaur that we see in the center really expresses physical strength, but also a sense of worry and concern. Man: It's interesting, my guess is that the Greeks, and later the Romans, might have identified more with the centaur than the wild cats. Usually when we see centaurs, they're in battle with Greeks, and the Greeks are those that we feel sympathy for, that is they are the [fully] civilized whereas the centaurs, who are still half-wild, are the aggressors. Here that's reversed, and our sympathy goes to the centaur because of their human qualities, even if they are still half of nature. The Greeks, and later the Romans, really saw themselves as separate from the chaos of nature, and here the centaur represents a brutality, but nothing compared to those cats. Woman: I think that's beautifully expressed by the emotion that we see in this centaur's face. We really read that as a complex human emotion of worry and fear, but also strength, and yet the animals have no emotional depth. I thin you're right, we're meant to identify with that figure of a centaur, even though he's half animal. Man: You'll notice that draped over his arm he's actually got the pelt of a leopard; so there may be good reason for the leopards to be annoyed. Woman: You said that this might give us an idea of what ancient Greek painting looked like, and in this mosaic we see what we see in ancient Greek sculpture, which does survive; and that is an interesting human anatomy and naturalism. Man: In fact, if you look at the rendering of the centaur, which is obviously an impossible creature, it is so beautifully rendered that we almost believe that it's possible anatomically. Look at the way, for instance. the abdomen moves into the chest of the horse, and we can imagine the way that the backbone of both the animals allied and become one. There really is this sense of believability, even in this impossible creature. Woman: We have a very realistic illusion of a rocky landscape for these figures to occupy. The figure of the fallen centaur on the left, and the fallen lion on the right, are foreshortened, helping to create this illusion of space. Man: Look at the beautiful foreshortening in the still upright centaur, and the way in which the horse is rendered, sort of going back in space. It's really beautifully done, and the fact that it's done in stone makes it even more impressive. Woman: It's a really remarkable achievement. Man: I would love to have seen this in its greater context, in Hadrian's dining room in his palace. (lighthearted music)