Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART: Hercules and the Hydra; Hercules and Antaeus

Collection: 
ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title: 
Hercules and the Hydra; Hercules and Antaeus
Alternate Title: 
Ercole e l'Idra e Ercole e Anteo
Image View: 
Overall view of Hercules and Antaeus (16 x 9 cm)
Creator: 
Antonio Pollaiuolo (Italian painter, 1431 or 1432-1498)
Location: 
repository: Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence, Tuscany, Italy) Inv. 1890 nn. 8268, 1478
Location Note: 
Piazzale degli Uffizi
GPS: 
+43.768639+11.255214
Date: 
ca. 1475-1478 (creation)
Cultural Context: 
Italian
Style Period: 
Fifteenth century; Renaissance
Work Type 1: 
panel painting
Classification: 
Paintings
Material: 
tempera paint on wood panel
Technique: 
painting and painting techniques
Measurements: 
16 cm (height, Hercules and Antaeus) x 9 cm (width, Hercules and Antaeus)
Subjects: 
human figure; mythology (Classical); Hercules (Roman mythological character); Medici, Lorenzo de’, 1449-1492; Labors of Hercules
Description: 
These two small panel paintings are pendants and were perhaps decorative panels on a piece of furniture. Hercules and the Hydra is 17 x 12 cm. The subject of Hercules and Antaeus is taken from Apollodorus (2.5:11). On his way back from the Hesperides, Hercules engaged in a wrestling match with the giant Antaeus who was invincible as long as some part of him touched the earth, from which he drew his strength. Hercules held him in the air in a vice-like grip, until he weakened and died. Hercules, the tutelary deity of Florence, the symbol of supreme civil virtues, the typical Florentine hero, was a popular subject with Pollaiuolo and his Medici patrons. These panels are versions of lost works painted for Lorenzo de' Medici around 1460. (Source: Web Gallery of Art; http://www.wga.hu/index.html)
Collection: 
Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
Identifier: 
7A1-POPPA-UG-HA-A03
Rights: 
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.