Achilles and the Centaur Chiron

By 1746 Pompeo Batoni was 38 and had made himself a name in Rome for large scenes drawn from ancient myth, and this is one of them. The story it tells is a lesson. As a boy the hero Achilles was given over to Chiron, a centaur, half man and half horse, who was famous as the teacher of heroes. Batoni catches the moment of instruction, and Chiron holds a lyre rather than a weapon. Beyond the archery and horsemanship a warrior would need, he is teaching the boy music, and young Achilles bends in to listen. The figures are kept in cool, clear colour, the boy wrapped in a light classical drape, in the restrained manner soon to be called Neoclassical. The canvas has come to rest in the Uffizi in Florence, roughly a metre and a half tall.