The Labours of Hercules

Private collection

mythological

In the present painting, the artist has depicted Hercules, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, gesturing towards the heavens while standing amidst the bodies of several of the great creatures that he has slain or captured as part of his twelve labours. These bodies are those of the Nemean Lion, the Erymanthian Boar, and the Lernaean Hydra. The painting is a study of the idealised male nude, epitomised by this demi-god.

About the Artist

Cornelis Van Haarlem

1562 – 1638

Dutch painter, also known as Cornelis Cornelisz, who ranks with Hendrik Goltzius and Karel van Mander as one of the leading representatives of Mannerism in the Netherlands. The three artists founded the Haarlem Academy, which was a school for drawing from the nude. He is best known for his large biblical and historical pictures packed with athletic, life-size Italianate nudes in wrenched and sharply foreshortened positions. But he also did a few forceful portraits of individuals and groups which show that he was an important forerunner of Frans Hals. Both facets of his work can best be seen in the Frans Halsmuseum in Haarlem, where he spent most of his life, after traveling in France and the Netherlands, but not, apparently, in Italy.

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