Greek mythology · Instinct, wisdom and combat

Half man, half horse, the centaur allows artists to oppose instinctive force, violence, desire and mastery of knowledge.

Centaurs appear in Greek mythology as a wild community often associated with the fight against the Lapiths. Chiron constitutes the major exception: a wise educator, he taught medicine, music and war to heroes such as Achilles. The Renaissance used this duality to think about the mastery of passions, as with Botticelli. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Böcklin, Redon and Franz von Stuck placed the creature in symbolist landscapes where it became solitude, desire or archaic power. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Böcklin, Redon and Franz von Stuck placed the creature in symbolist landscapes where it became solitude, desire or archaic power. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Böcklin, Redon and Franz von Stuck placed the creature in symbolist landscapes where it became solitude, desire or archaic power. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Böcklin, Redon and Franz von Stuck placed the creature in symbolist landscapes where it became solitude, desire or archaic power. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Böcklin, Redon

The centaur makes visible a human contradiction: intelligence and instinct share the same body without ever stopping fighting.