Groteskentapijt met Hercules

Meester van het Geometrische Merk

c. 1545 - c. 1550

Medium
wool, silk
Classification
tapestry
Dimensions
height 345 cm x width 425 cm
Museum
Rijksmuseum
Rights
Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed

View at the Rijksmuseum

About this work

Tapestry with Hercules and grotesques. Wool, silk. Designed by Perino del Vaga (1500 - 1547), by Josse van Herselle. Brussels, 1530 - 1540. Amid the columns stands the classical hero Hercules clad in a lionskin and holding a club in his hand. He is surrounded by an imaginative array of decorative motifs. Monkeys, satyrs, peacocks on a vase, men with masks and women with trumpets are piled up in vertical bands. These ornaments, which are known as grotesques, are characteristic of Renaissance decorative art. The tapestry is one of a set with gods among grotesques, which adorned the walls of Admiral Andrea Doria's Palazzo Bianco in Genoa.