c. 1776

Chiron Instructing Achilles in the Bow

Giovanni Battista Cipriani

Italian (active Florence and England), 1727 - 1785

The Trojan War hero Achilles appears in Giovanni Battista Cipriani’s painting as a youth learning archery under the instruction of the wise centaur Chiron. Chiron was famed for his knowledge of medicine and music, and for training other great heroes, such as Hercules. Cipriani modeled these muscular figures after ancient sculptures and frescoes, particularly those that had been recently excavated at Herculaneum (now in Campania, Italy). Ancient depictions of Chiron and Achilles often carried an erotic charge, alluding to themes of same-sex sexual initiation, and Cipriani’s paintings might likewise be read as reflecting the intense homosocial (and sometimes homosexual) bonds among England’s male elite.

This painting is one of a series of four painted for an anteroom of Lansdowne House, a luxurious residence in central London designed by the Neoclassical architect Robert Adam. The drawn bow may allude to a patron of both the painting and the house, Lord Shelburne, whose coat of arms included a centaur holding a bow. The drawing room from Lansdowne House is also in the museum’s collection (see 1931-104-1).