Study of Hercules Resting, with Separate Studies of His Head and Foot (recto); Rectangular grid design (verso)
Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560–1609)
1595/97
- Medium
- Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue laid paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 25.9 × 39.5 cm (10 1/4 × 15 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This is a highly finished study for a fresco mural of the same subject in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Hercules, the hero of Greek myth, is identified by his club, a lion’s hide, and the apple in his right hand. Though lifelike, the figure was not drawn from a live model but rather from statues available to the artist in Rome, especially an ancient Roman sculpture of a reclining river god.
The blue paper creates a mid tone between the black and white chalks, granting Hercules a greater degree of volume and naturalism and dramatically enhancing Annibale Carracci’s fluid, masterful line.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
