| Paintings and mosaics in Pompeii and Ercolano: |
Theseus and the Centaurs
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 During
the Peirithous and Hippodamia's wedding ceremony, the Centaurs
get drunk and start assaulting the women; Eurytus, or Eurytion
grabs hold of the bride who in turn is defended by Theseus. This
episode had already appeared in some of the most ancient
artistic representations, reaching an all-time high point of
artistic expression in the Parthenon metope. The Herculaneum
picture shows the final moments of the episode, with Theseus
grabbing the Centaur roughly by the head, ready to plunge his
sword into him so as to defend Hippodamia. Despite the spartan
setting of the scene, the composition shows the extraordinary
effectiveness with which the figures have been endowed; the
canny use of shading and few crucial colours have helped
emphasise the characters in accordance with the Neo-Attic
academic tastes of the early decades of Augustus' reign, without
dominating the drawing itself which displays signs of masterly
sketching.
Bibliography: V. von Graeve, Marmorbilder aus Herkulaneum und
Pompeji, in DdA 1984, n. 2 pp.89-113, S. De Caro, Il Museo
Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Napoli 1994, pp. 198-199
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Fonte: MANN
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