The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Defeating the Centaurs
Medium
engraving
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection
Accession Number
1950.457
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
Labeled ARUMNAE HERCVLIS, meaning “Labors of Hercules,” this is the title page of Beham’s suite of 12 tiny prints depicting larger-than-life stories of the mighty Hercules. The battle scene may refer to a story in which Hercules slays the centaur Eurytion, bridegroom to a young girl who was previously Hercules’s lover. The centaur could also allude to Nessus, a centaur who cunningly plots Hercules’s undoing, depicted later in the series. Beham was one of several German printmakers referred to t...