Hercules and Lichas
Medium
Black chalk with pen and brown ink and brush and blue-green wash on pieced ivory laid paper, pricked for transfer
Dimensions
46 × 32.9 cm (18 1/8 × 13 in.)
Classification
chalk
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
223044
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Filippo Falciatore was a mid-century master who excelled at an ornamental rococo style with baroque flourishes. This rare sheet juxtaposes violently entwined mythological figures with decorative floral motifs. The subject would have been a familiar part of the landscape of Naples; the famous ancient sculpture known as the Farnese Hercules appears in the the Art Institute’s Neapolitan crèche. Here the tragic hero flings his manservant Lichas into the Aegean Sea. Hercules’s wife, Deianira, had sen...