Grand Tour Bronze Centaur

A centaur in patinated bronze, mounted on a plinth of red Istrian marble. Probably Roman or Neapolitan, made as a grand tour souvenir. This centaur is derived from the so-called ‘young centaur’, one of two centaurs in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, dated to the late 1st century CE. Named the Furietti centaurs, they were unearthed in Hadrian’s villa near Tivoli in 1736 by Cardinal Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti, and thought to themselves derive from even earlier Hellenistic originals. The young centaur has a boar’s skin draped over his left arm, with a lagobolon- stick used for hunting hares- in his left hand and extending over his left shoulder.

Italian, probably mid 19th century

Including base, 13-1/2″ in height x 9″ in width x 4″ in depth