The Centaur Chiron and Achilles

As a boy the Greek hero Achilles was entrusted to the wise Centaur Chiron – half human, half horse – for his education. The Centaur is teaching Achilles how to shoot a bow and arrow, while books and instruments connected with the study of astronomy and medical botany lie on the floor. Together with “Aeneas the Sibyl and Charon” (Inv. No. GG 306) this picture was part of the decorations in the state bedroom of Prince Eugene of Savoy in his winter palace in Vienna’s Himmelpfortgasse.