The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
Sebastiano Ricci
Italian, 1659–1734
Details
Title
The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
Artist/Maker
Sebastiano Ricci (Italian, 1659–1734)
Date
ca. 1705
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
54 1/2 x 69 5/8 inches
Credit
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Accession #
58.55
Sebastiano Ricci helped revitalize Venetian art at the beginning of the eighteenth century by adopting rich, luminous colors that made his compositions appear natural and his painting spontaneous. The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs depicts a subject from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. An altercation began when Pirithous, King of the Lapiths, infuriated Mars, the Roman god of war, by excluding him from his wedding celebration. To exact his revenge, Mars enlisted the centaur Eurythion to abduct Pirithous’s bride.