Theseus

Ascending the stairs of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, visitors pass the sculpture "Theseus defeats the Centaur" by Antonio Canova. The sculpture was originally ordered by Napoleon to glorify the victory over the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo (1805). But as his era was over before the work was finished, Canova had to find a new purchaser and found it in Napoleon´s father-in-law Franz II who reinterpreted the sculpture as national monument to the victory over Napoleon in 1814. Until 1890 the sculpture was located at the Theseus Temple.