Apollo and the CentaurBaldassarre Peruzzi

This fresco (c. 1511) in the Loggia of Galatea shows Apollo, god of light and music, confronting a centaur that personifies the zodiac sign Sagittarius. Apollo’s calm stance and lyre contrast with the centaur’s tense, twisting body. Inspired by Poliziano’s Stanze per la giostra (Stanzas for the Joust), the scene reflects the humanist revival of classical myth as a vehicle for moral and cosmic order.