Centaur

About this artwork.

The mighty horse's body changes almost imperceptibly into a muscular male upper body. Centaur, rearing up with the powerfully twisted torso, seems to want to tear itself away from the earth in a final attempt. The centaur is a creature from Greek mythology, half man, half horse, that stands for impetuous power. The Centaurs were a tribe of primitive creatures who lived in Thessaly (an area in northeastern Greece) and according to myth were exterminated by the Lapiths, a tribe of giant heroes.

Jon Gardella's Centaur is not fully developed. The horse's legs are missing and as far as the upper body is concerned he has confined himself to the torso. The artist is therefore not so much concerned with a realistic depiction, but with a core idea about dynamics. In his work, Gardella is engaged in capturing movement, such as the dynamics of dance, of the horse in motion, of the eternally restless sea.   

In 1984 the Groningen Regional Health Fund commissioned Gardella to make a sculpture for their newly opened building on Schweitzerlaan. In 1998, the University of Groningen received the sculpture as a gift from the insurer RZG, because the health insurer felt that the artwork deserved a larger and more suitable location. Centaur was given a new location at the Zernike complex of the university.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Jon Gardella

• District
  Zernike

• Year of creation
  1984

• Art type
  Freestanding sculpture

• Material
  Bronze

• Dimensions
  h 1,80 m