Pallas and the Centaur
c. 1482 · Tempera on canvas · Uffizi Gallery, Florence
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445–1510)
- Year
- c. 1482
- Medium
- Tempera on canvas
- Original size
- 205 × 147.5 cm
- Collection
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence
- Movement
- Renaissance
A tall woman crowned and garlanded with olive, carrying an ornate halberd, takes hold of the hair of a centaur, who holds a bow and turns towards her with a look of submission; behind them rises a rock face and a calm bay with a ship. Her white dress is scattered with the Medici emblem of interlaced diamond rings. Botticelli painted the life-size canvas in Florence in about 1482, soon after returning from work on the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It is generally read as an allegory of reason or chastity taming passion, the centaur's usual meaning. The woman was called Camilla in the earliest record, a 1499 inventory listing the picture in the same room as Primavera in the palace of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, and Minerva, the Roman Pallas, in 1516. It is often connected with Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's wedding in 1482. Overlooked for centuries, it was noticed in an ante-room of the Palazzo Pitti in 1895 and has been in the Uffizi since 1922.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A garlanded woman in white and green with a gold halberd taming a centaur before a rock and a pale bay, for a living room, study or stair wall at 24×32 in natural wood. A soft sage, cream or warm grey wall; it pairs with Primavera.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Renaissance painting
- Era
- 15th century (c. 1482)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- living room, study or library, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×32. Prints at 12×16, 18×24, 24×32 in — 12×16 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 18×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×32 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Pallas and the Centaur in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Pallas and the Centaur painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
