Theseus Fighting the Centaur Bianor

Antoine-Louis Barye

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Barye's thorough grounding in classical prototypes is evident in this highly charged representation of an incident from the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs described in Book XII of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Bayre surely knew the series of metopes from the Parthenon depicting the Greek legend, but the death blow delivered by the Greek hero is recognizable as a borrowing from the marble Hercules and a Centaur by the Mannerist sculptor Giambologna in Florence.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art