DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31769#0072
The slack bow of the centaur
With her halberd, she is more heavily armed than he and
thus, presumably, also more dangerous than the monster.
The mythological centaur, with its bestial lower halb
is the embodiment of fleshly lust unrestrained by any
moderating conventions. In classical accounts, he is
portrayed as wild and violent. In medieval mythological
manuscripts the centaur becomes the incarnation of un-
bridled sexual desire per se: “Centaurs, namely, who are
said to be half human and half horse, personify (Latin
text: denotant) such men whose fleshly lust has turned
them into beasts.”55 A sense of those bestial qualities is
conveyed by the darkly colored, animalistic lower body
with the gemtals clearly in view as a sign of male aggres-
sion and sexuality. Next to the figure stands Minerva,
the personification of wisdom, who — simply because
she ls so virtuous — is in a position to tame the evil,
animal-Iike behaviour of the other. As a sign of her
power and victory over the lasciviousness personified in
the centaur, she takes hold of his head as though it were
completely separate from his lower half and thus entirely
in her power. het Minerva not only appears as an agent
for the regulating of carnal desire as she meets it in the
shape of the centaur; she may also serve as an opposing
figure to Amor in the neighboring painting La Primavera.
The blind, and thus uncontrollable son of Venus was
a symbol of sensual pleasure (voluptas), similar to the
centaurL 6 while the chase Minerva was regarded as a
restraining counter-balance to the cheeky little rogue.
The theme of feminine dominance, as it emerges here,
is identifiable in other, usually smaller, picture types from
that time period. Typical of these were the deschi da parto
— salvers which were ordered for the occasion of a birth
and presented to the mother. These were frequently dec-
orated with more or less extravagant depictions of the
71
With her halberd, she is more heavily armed than he and
thus, presumably, also more dangerous than the monster.
The mythological centaur, with its bestial lower halb
is the embodiment of fleshly lust unrestrained by any
moderating conventions. In classical accounts, he is
portrayed as wild and violent. In medieval mythological
manuscripts the centaur becomes the incarnation of un-
bridled sexual desire per se: “Centaurs, namely, who are
said to be half human and half horse, personify (Latin
text: denotant) such men whose fleshly lust has turned
them into beasts.”55 A sense of those bestial qualities is
conveyed by the darkly colored, animalistic lower body
with the gemtals clearly in view as a sign of male aggres-
sion and sexuality. Next to the figure stands Minerva,
the personification of wisdom, who — simply because
she ls so virtuous — is in a position to tame the evil,
animal-Iike behaviour of the other. As a sign of her
power and victory over the lasciviousness personified in
the centaur, she takes hold of his head as though it were
completely separate from his lower half and thus entirely
in her power. het Minerva not only appears as an agent
for the regulating of carnal desire as she meets it in the
shape of the centaur; she may also serve as an opposing
figure to Amor in the neighboring painting La Primavera.
The blind, and thus uncontrollable son of Venus was
a symbol of sensual pleasure (voluptas), similar to the
centaurL 6 while the chase Minerva was regarded as a
restraining counter-balance to the cheeky little rogue.
The theme of feminine dominance, as it emerges here,
is identifiable in other, usually smaller, picture types from
that time period. Typical of these were the deschi da parto
— salvers which were ordered for the occasion of a birth
and presented to the mother. These were frequently dec-
orated with more or less extravagant depictions of the
71