Achilles and Chiron

Achilles and Chiron

The large fresco in Fourth Style portrays the centaur Chiron who is busy tuning the lyre which the young Achilles holds in his left hand. As he does this he puts his arms around the shoulders of the young man in a gesture which is a mixture of affection and protection. Chiron, who is seated, is portrayed in the full flowering of his strength; his face is completely humanised, and the only evidence of his hybrid nature consists of his equine ears. The adolescent Achilles, whose figure is modelled on the type of the Farnese Hercules, is covered only by a short cloak, and looks trustingly towards his teacher. The two figures stand out in the foreground, while the background consists of elegant architecture, portrayed in the tiniest detail. The theme portrayed is that of mythological pedagogy, according to the iconography that we know belongs to a sculptural group which stood, on the basis of Pliny’s writings, in the Saepta Iulia. From a formal point of view, one immediately becomes aware of the artist’s intention to use a restricted number of colours, giving the composition the chromatic uniformity of sculpture, and to represent it as a sculptural piece by choosing as a setting the podium of a monument rather than the cave of Mount Pelion where the centaur lived. The same group appears as the arms on Achilles’ shield in the Pompeian fresco depicting the hero at Skyros.