Hercules and Omphale
1560–1609
Medium
Red and black chalk; outlines partly pricked for transfer; framing outlines in black chalk
Dimensions
sheet: 15 3/8 x 17 in. (39 x 43.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Cephas G. Thompson, 1887
Accession Number
87.12.82
Tags
Art Historical Context
Annibale Carracci’s *Hercules and Omphale* captures a lively moment from classical mythology in which the mighty hero is shown in a playful reversal of roles with the Lydian queen. Created between 1560 and 1609, the drawing reflects Carracci’s central role in the early Baroque reform of art, as he and his family moved away from artificial Mannerist conventions toward a more natural, classically inspired style grounded in observation and expressive gesture. Executed in red and black chalk with outlines partly pricked for transfer, the sheet reveals the practical working methods of a seventeent...
About the Artist
Annibale Carracci · 1560–1609
Annibale was considered one of the greatest Italian painters of his age. His style is marked by naturalism combined with the formal language of Classicism in a grand and monumental style. Annibale was also instrumental in evolving the ideal, classical landscape and is generally credited with the invention of caricature. Italian painter. Comment on works: Mythology.