Chiron, the Centaur

Left: Observations sur les antiquités d’Herculanum avec quelques réflexions sur la peinture & la sculpture des anciens; & une courte description de plusieurs antiquités des environs de Naples. Par MM. Cochin & Bellicard. Second Edition (Paris, 1755), plate 17, p. 41

Right: Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano e contorni incise con qualche spiegazione. Volume 1 (Naples, 1757), plate 8, p. 43

These images present us with two versions of the same wall painting of the centaur Chiron, found in the Basilica at Herculaneum. The stylistic differences between these illustrations reflect the history of their publication. Cochin and Bellicard’s Observations sur Les Antiquités D’Herculanum was printed without the permission of the court in Naples. In this book, the authors reproduced freehand drawings done from memory after the artists had left the royal museum at Portici. Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano, on the other hand, was the official publication of Campanian antiquities sponsored by the king of Naples, who controlled both access to the ruins and the diffusion of information about them. While both books were meant for scholars interested in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Cochin and Bellicard's Observations offers a less censored and, in some ways, more truthful representation of ancient paintings. In this volume, ancient works of art are discussed in relation to their find spot, while, in Le pitture, they were separated by medium and reorganized thematically. Moreover, in Le pitture, the paintings' imperfections (i.e. their fragmentary state and rugged edges) were smoothed over. Although the images from Le pitture may be more aesthetically pleasing, their disregard for the frescoes' original context and appearance leaves the viewer with an incomplete understanding of these monuments.