Athena1.0008_Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli, 1445-1510, "Pallas and the Centaur," (also identified as Camilla or a nymph of Diana; allegory of victory of reason over sensuality?), 1482-83, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, inv. 29

Since Athenians developed the conception of their patroness as the embodiment of wisdom and stability, allegorical interpretations have expanded upon her prowess in triumphing over ignorance or war or vice or really anything unvirtuous. In this case, as so often, the centaur readily represents all those things in one creature. Indeed, the idea in this image is not far removed from the depiction of the Lapithocentauromachy on the ancient Parthenon.

This picture is very much of its time. As patrons developed a taste for thinking with classical myth, they enlisted painters who could help them present those ideas. Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, Andrea Mantegna and others stepped forward. The philosopher Marsillio Ficino played a learned role in developing classical goddesses as figures to "think with". Botticelli's Birth of Venus, his Primavera, his Mars and Venus, like this painting as well, demonstrate the application of Neoplatonism. That all plays out in Botticelli's allegorical painting of Athena's ability to humanize even a brutish centaur.

See Gombrich also cited on "Birth of Venus" slide (=AphroditeBirth1.0004).