Nessus and Deianira: An Italian-Inspired Bronze

Ovid’s Metamorphoses was a source of inspiration for many Renaissance artists. Book IX tells the story of Heracles’s wife Deianira. One day, a centaur named Nessus tried to abduct or rape the young woman while ferrying her across the river Euenos, but Heracles shot the half-man, half-horse with a poisoned arrow. Many 16^th-century Italian sculptors chose this violent moment as a pretext to contrast the centaur’s bestial nature with the young woman’s fragility. The original L'Enlèvement de Déjanire par le centaure Nessus (Deianira Abducted by the Centaur Nessus), a bronze made in France about 1700, can be attributed to two outstanding artists: Jean de Bologne, known as Giambologna, and Antonio Susini.

A Flemish sculptor born in Douai, Giambologna led a triumphant career in Florence under the protection of the Medicis, creating such unforgettable masterpieces as Mercury and the equestrian statue of Cosimo I. The powerful theme of the abduction of Deianira fascinated this genius of Mannerist sculpture, who made many small bronzes depicting the scene, the oldest of which seems to date from about 1576 (currently held at the Galleria Colonna in Rome). This first version of Deianira being carried on her abductor’s back differs from ours, which belongs to a second group called "type B" in the classification by the artist's specialists, Charles Avery and Anthony Radcliffe. This is where the other sculptor to whom the work could also be attributed intervenes: Antonio Susini, Giambologna’s brilliant collaborator and pupil in Florence until 1600, the year he founded his own studio while remaining on friendly terms with his former mentor. Researchers consider the famous "type B" either a cast from the master’s original by Susini or a radical revision by the latter. In any case, it is the version that won over 17^th‑century aesthetes on the lookout for famous Italian models, as the presence of a copy in Louis XIV’s collection attests (Louvre). Our group, a sumptuous French cast with a translucent golden-brown patina, confirms its popularity.