# Theseus and the Centaur [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [CANOVA, Antonio]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Marble, height 340 cm ## Commentary In his later version of the Theseus myth, Canova shows a scene of turbulent struggle. Theseus raises his club in his right hand ready to strike, while already kneeling on the chest of the centaur, who is arched backwards and lying on the ground. The dominant shape of the design is a large triangle formed ofTheseus's right foot, the centaur's left hand propping himself up, and the helmet as the apex. Although Canova's group resembles the Laocoön group of Antiquity in its expression of pathos and in the presentation of strain in a duel, the rhetorical and scholarly elements dominate in Canova's style, and it was on these that academic tradition would later be based. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 3 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/17\_cent/lully\_theseus.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Jean-Baptiste Lully: Theseus, overture</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [Bust of Napoleon Bonaparte]() - [Cupid and Psyche \(detail\)]() - [Cupid and Psyche \(detail\)]() - [Cupid and Psyche]() - [Cupid and Psyche]() - [Cupid and Psyche]() - [Cupid and Psyche]() - [Daedalus and Icarus]() - [Daedalus and Icarus]() - [Eurydice]() - [Feed the Hungry]() - [Funerary Monument of Francesco Pesaro \(model\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()