Hercules and Omphale c.1675-77
Oil on canvas | 227.3 x 164.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 402940
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Standing at the left is Omphale, wearing Hercules' lion-skin and holding his club. He is seated at the right, holding her distaff. A cupid at his feet is smiling, looking out at the viewer and pointing upwards towards a female attendant who is positioned behind Hercules, and is tying a bracelet to his wrist.
The subject of this work is a familiar one in painting from the Renaissance onwards. The hero Hercules was sold as an enslaved person to Omphale, Queen of Lydia, and became her lover. In her service Hercules grew effeminate, adopted woman's dress and spun yarn. The chief source for the story is Appolodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 2, Chapter 6, no. 3.
A pupil of his uncle Guercino, Gennari came to England in 1674 and was considerably patronized by King Charles II and his court. This work, along with several other paintings of famous classical love stories, are recorded in Gennari's own MS. (MS. B344, Archiginnasio, Bologna) as all being painted for Charles II and placed in the King's Dining-Room at Windsor.
Signed bottom left: GENNARI.Provenance
Painted for Charles II and recorded as a set of four in the King's Eating Room at Windsor Castle in 1688 (nos 759-62)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
227.3 x 164.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
243.5 x 182.7 x 7.8 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)