The painting was discovered in 1895 in one of the ante-rooms of the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence, by William Spence. It has been proposed as a companion piece to the famous Primavera and interpreted as an allegory of the end of the bloody Pazzi wars. Athena and the Centaur is one of Botticelli’s many paintings that explore the relationship between man and woman. This mythological painting shows, as in several of his paintings, the woman to have dominance over the man and be superior in both wisdom and virtue.
Athena and Centaur
tempera on wood • 207 x 148 cm
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Sandro Botticelli