The Dying Centaur

William Rimmer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mythical centaur, with the head and torso of a man and lower body of a horse, represented Rimmer’s recurrent fascination with dueling forces of the spiritual and the physical, the mortal and the immortal, the animal and the human. Here, a centaur who has collapsed futilely attempts to rise. The truncated, upraised arms express the pathos of the dying creature’s plight. Rimmer modeled the sculpture while he was teaching at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and left no commentary on its enigmatic meaning. However, among the proposed interpretations is a connection to the moral tales of poet and theologian Edward Young, in which a centaur confronts his death after a lifetime of debauchery. Facing God’s judgement, he desperately seeks salvation, possibly referring to Rimmer's own moral tumult and lifelong struggles with mental illness.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art