Scenes from the life of Hercules, en brunaille (two illustrated)

Details

After Guido Reni
Scenes from the life of Hercules, en brunaille (two illustrated)
oil on canvas, unframed
two 38 ¾ x 38 ½ in. (98.4 x 97.7 cm.); and two 40 ½ x 40 ½ in. (102.8 x 102. cm.)
(4)After the paintings in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The depicted scenes are: The death of Hercules on a funeral pyre; Hercules wrestling with Achelous for the hand of Deinara; The abduction of Deinara by the centaur Nessus; and The slaying of the Lernaean Hydra.

The present works are after four paintings by Reni, executed between 1617 and 1620 as part of a proposed decorative cycle of the Labours of Hercules for Ferdinando Gonzaga (1587-1626). The paintings, now in the Louvre, were engraved in 1669/70 by Gilles Rousselet (1610-1686).

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