The Choice of Heracles
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian painter, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brothers, Annibale was one of the progenitors
Max Resolution:3465×2464 PX
Title:The Choice of Heracles
Artists:Annibale Carracci
Date:c.1596
Style:Baroque
Genre:mythological painting
Medium:oil,canvas
Location:National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
Dimensions:273×167 cm
Copyright:Public domain
The Choice of Hercules is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Annibale Carracci. Dating from 1596, it is housed in the Capodimonte Gallery of Naples. The subject is the Choice of Hercules.
Carracci, who was in Rome from the late 1595 or early 1596, was commissioned this work by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese for the ceiling of his camerino in his family's palace. In 1662 it was moved to the Farnese ducal seat in Parma. The work is considered one of Carracci's masterworks for its balanced rendering of a poetical ideal, graphically influenced by the artist's contact with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes and Rome's classical remains, such as the Farnese Hercules or the Laocoon group.
A vigorous and plastic Hercules is depicted with two women flanking him, who represent the opposite destinies which life could reserve him: on the left Virtue is calling him to the hardest path leading to glory through hardship, while the second, a woman with worldly pleasures, the easier path, is enticing him to vice.
Behind Hercules is a palm, which, through the leaves and the branches (a symbol of military victory and fame), hints to Hercules' future heroic life. At the top of the hardest path is Hercules reward, Pegasus.
Carracci, who was in Rome from the late 1595 or early 1596, was commissioned this work by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese for the ceiling of his camerino in his family's palace. In 1662 it was moved to the Farnese ducal seat in Parma. The work is considered one of Carracci's masterworks for its balanced rendering of a poetical ideal, graphically influenced by the artist's contact with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes and Rome's classical remains, such as the Farnese Hercules or the Laocoon group.
A vigorous and plastic Hercules is depicted with two women flanking him, who represent the opposite destinies which life could reserve him: on the left Virtue is calling him to the hardest path leading to glory through hardship, while the second, a woman with worldly pleasures, the easier path, is enticing him to vice.
Behind Hercules is a palm, which, through the leaves and the branches (a symbol of military victory and fame), hints to Hercules' future heroic life. At the top of the hardest path is Hercules reward, Pegasus.