Public domain
Battle of the Centaurs
From the collection of Kunstmuseum Basel. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The Basel painting was prepared by Böcklin in the temporal context of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 in color studies and a first unfinished painting version. The two early color sketches from 1871 and 1872 are in private collections and in the Kunstmuseum Bern; the unfinished painting version is also in private ownership. For the repertoire of figures, Böcklin oriented himself on the ancient myth of the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths, as described, for example, in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Kunstmuseum Basel’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineKentaurenkampf. 1872/1873. Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901). Kunstmuseum Basel, Ankauf mit Mitteln des Birmann-Fonds. Public domain.
