Michelangelo's
'The
Battle of the Centaurs'.
That a teenager,
Michelangelo was seventeen when he produced this work, could execute
such a sophisticated piece of sculpture is remarkable.
The Battle of the Centaurs is a writhing
mass of figures
three-dimensionally carved into a marble block. The figures are layered
in overlapping positions adding to the spacial depth of the
work. We can see the artists interest in the massive bulk of the naked
male form, a theme that would serve Michelangelo well in
future commissions, including his work in the Sistine Chapel.
That the sculpture has an unfinished roughness adds to the
overall mystery as we seek
to make sense of the intertwining human narrative emerging from the
stone.
'The Battle of the Centaurs',
1492 Marble Relief, 33x35 inches .
Michelangelo
Buonarrotti. (s)
This
is probably a demonstration piece showcasing the skill of the artist.
The block stands alone and does not appear to be connected to any great
work and in fact we have no knowledge of any intended destination for
the sculpture. Michelangelo would have been aware of earlier relief
works by Donatello and the stone reliefs of antiquity but this was a
work that had no fifteenth-century comparison.
Personal
opinion:-
If
this is a practice piece of sculpture by Michelangelo he is certainly
showing what he can do. In it's rough state it seems to show the
artists method of construction and the transition from marble block to
a complex array of humanity.
The title is misleading, it is difficult
to distinguish any centaur like creature within the composition.
However the central lower figure does seem to have the rear of a horse
by it's side.
The imaginative process that has produced this work,
alive with dynamism and movement, is awe inspiring, a true masterpiece.
 (s)
(Detail)
Is this image a
man being crushed by a dying horse or the mythical half-man half-horse
centaur?
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