Hercules Raising his Club: Study for “Hercules and Cacus”
Medium
Black chalk, with white chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on laid paper
Dimensions
41 × 24.7 cm (16 3/16 × 9 3/4 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
248310
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Using only black chalk heightened with white to convey flesh tones, François Lemoyne convincingly depicted the hero Hercules in full swing, fully embodied and activated, and positioned surprisingly like a baseball player at bat. One of two known studies for the figure in Lemoyne’s painting Hercules Clubbing Cacus, this sheet powerfully conveys the artist’s graphic skill. The painting illustrates the 10th labor of Hercules, in which the hero was commanded to bring the monster Geryon’s cattle bac...