Signed on the base. Dimensions with wooden base: 41x55.5x35 cm. Provenance: Private collection, Lombardy.

Comparative literature: M. Crespi in T. Rota, "Michele Vedani scultore, testimone di un'epoca", Lecco 2013, pp. 113-114 (illustrated S05).

Presented in 1910 at the Esposizione Nazionale di Belle Arti at the Reale Accademia di Brera and Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente in Milan, the bronze model of the "Centauress attacked by satyrs" is one of the rare symbolist-themed subjects developed by Michele Vedani between the 1910s and 1920s, together with "Vien l'onda", "Il Bacio", "Faunetto presso la ninfa procace" and "Satiro". In addition to the present bronze, another version is known, the one exhibited in 1910 and published by M. Crespi (in T. Rota, "Michele Vedani scultore, testimone di un'epoca", Lecco 2013, p. 114), which differs for minute details. The sculpture is a condensation of contracted movement and plastic and erotic tension made explicit by the pose of the centauress, who leaps forward, wriggling with effort, in that chaotic but still moment before managing to shake off the annoying satyrs. The atmospheric rendering of the bodies and movement and the tactile strength of the bronze as an inert material from which the figures emerge with almost primordial fury are here also accompanied by an evident influence of contemporary Symbolism of German origin, recalling, in the myth that merges with the erotic and playful element, the contemporary works of Franz Von Stuck, certainly known to Vedani and which also seem to have inspired the bronze statue of the "Satiro" (M. Crespi in T. Rota, "Michele Vedani sculptor, witness of an era" , Lecco 2013, p. 115, S07).