A relief carved marble panel depicting the mythological Greek battle of the Centaurs.

Italian - 18th/19th century

According to Greek legend and myth, as a gesture of good will the Thessalian king of the Lapith, Pirithos, invited the neighboring Centaurs to his wedding feast. Aroused in impulsive drunkenness the Centaur Eurytion attempted to sequester the heralded consort. Violence and war ensued until the Centaurs were banished from Thessaly.

Symbolic of the conflict between order and chaos and illustrating the hostility of civilized Greek opinion regarding foreign “barbarians”, the myth of the Centuars was a popular topic for Greek artist of the Pheidias (480-430 BCE) school of sculpture and painting.