The Wounded Centaur (verso: the Birth of Venus?)

The Wounded Centaur (verso: the Birth of Venus?), dated to around 1485 and now in Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford, is a double-sided work that places Lippi in the Humanist tradition of classical mythology as a domain for genuine imaginative engagement. The centaur — half man, half horse — had been a presence in Florentine intellectual culture since Botticelli's Pallas and the Centaur of around 1482. The verso's possible Birth of Venus connects this work to the Medici circle's neo-Platonic programme of mythological imagery, suggesting a private collector rather than a public devotional context.

The double-sided format suggests a panel designed to be seen from both directions, possibly as a piece of portable or display furniture. Lippi's handling of the centaur's hybrid anatomy requires him to navigate the join between human and animal — a technical and imaginative challenge he resolves through careful tonal modelling of the contrasting body types.