The Fall of Nessus

This piece was just returned to me after having show in two consecutive shows, one in Los Angeles and the next in Seattle, as part of two group shows. 

The Seattle Show was themed around mythology, and the first idea that popped into my head was the abduction of Hercules' wife Dejanira by the centaur, Nessus. The tale has been covered by a number of painters of the past, but I felt there was a dynamism missing from some of these earlier depictions.  So I decided to take a stab at it, and I'm proud to say that this was the result. 

Possibly my best forearm...

The Center of the Galaxy

Sagittarius, the ninth symbol of the zodiac, contains the densest part of the Milky Way as it lies near the galactic center. The Babylonians identified the symbol with Pabilsaĝ, the tutelary god of the city of Isin (now in modern Iraq).  The Greeks later associated him with Chiron who was the mythological tutor Achilles.

As a fun side note, the Greeks sometimes described centaurs as drunkards who could not handle their liquor, and yet drank all the time.  Interesting, considering what was going on when I drew this.  Not half-bad for a drawing of a horse at a gallop with no reference.

Hide Your Wife...

Centaurs...always running off with people's wives. Nessus ran off with Deianeira. To those of you who only know Hercules from Steve Reeves or...ahem...Lou Ferigno, Deianeira was Herc's main squeeze. Naturally, Herc shot Nessus with an arrow as he ran off with her across a river. While dying, Nessus told Deianeira to take some of his blood, and to give it to Herc if she ever thought he was being unfaithful. Well, bright girl that she was, she later smeared it all over one of Herc's robes...and only after sending him off did she notice that the blood caught fire when hit by the sun. Herc, of course, not one to go down without a fight, tried to put out the flames, jumped in the water (which only made it worse), and tried to rip it off...taking his skin and organs with it. Before dying, he tossed the servant that gave him the robe into the sea.

The Moral of the Story: Don't use centaur's blood as sunscreen unless you want your husband anything above medium rare.

And So It Begins...

As you may recall, I mentioned that I had begun looking for images of centaurs for reference for a drawing I was doing for a friend. Naturally I came across the colossal statue of Theseus and the Centaur, by Canova. It's a very striking piece, and I recommend you go look it up. Of course, I could hotlink it...but uh...I don't want a Canova masterpiece drawing away from the pale first image I did in this quickie sketch series. I'm no dummy.

A Herald

This fella was probably the harbinger of the Neo-Neo-Classical insanity that was to follow. I'd been asked by a friend to draw a centaur that he could reproduce to tag his music equipment in order to distinguish it from the ubiquitously black equipment of everyone else. So...centaurs...certainly a motif of the classical age...a little image research later, and I was up to my eyeballs in marble figures. Those to follow.