The Abduction of Hippodamia (L'Enlèvement d'Hippodamie)

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, possibly with Auguste Rodin

National Gallery of Art

A centaur, a creature with a man’s torso and horse’s body, wraps both arms around a nearly nude woman who falls backward in this bronze, freestanding sculpture. In this photograph, the centaur faces our right with its front feet rearing up. His muscular torso leans to our left, and his mouth is wide open and brows deeply furrowed. A wreath of flowers is tied with a bow around his head, and he looks to the right. In his arms, the woman’s legs and arms fall back as she arcs away from him. One knee and one elbow are bent, and drapery covers only her groin. Her hair cascades onto the centaur’s rump, and her eyes and mouth are wide open. The centaur’s tail is lifted, and one back foot is planted forward, under the bulk of his body. The other leg is bent so the top of that hoof rests on a swath of fabric that falls down the far side of the pair. Water pours from an overturned urn onto a textured ground between the centaur’s feet. The cast base has molding and a plaque on the front reading, “L’ENLEVEMENT.” The bronze is shiny brown in some areas with a pine-green patina in other areas.