Design: Proportions of the Farnese Hercules, from Encyclopédie
1762/77
Medium
Etching, with engraving, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 32 × 20.6 cm (12 5/8 × 8 1/8 in.); Plate: 35.5 × 22.5 cm (14 × 8 7/8 in.); Sheet: 40 × 26 cm (15 3/4 × 10 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
148263
Art Historical Context
In the grand tradition of Enlightenment scholarship, Benoît-Louis Prost's *Design: Proportions of Farnese Hercules* (1762/77) the anatomical precision of one of antiquity's most celebrated sculptures. Featured in Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert revolutionary *Encyclopédie*, etching illustrates the ideal human proportions derived from the massive Farnese Hercules—a towering Roman marble statue rediscovered in the 16th century from the Baths of Carac. Standing over 3 meters tall, the weary yet heroic figure became a cornerstone for artists studying classical anatomy during the Renaissa...