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Hercules and Lichas

A work made of black chalk with pen and brown ink and brush and blue-green wash on pieced ivory laid paper, pricked for transfer.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of black chalk with pen and brown ink and brush and blue-green wash on pieced ivory laid paper, pricked for transfer.

Date:

n.d.

Artist:

Filippo Falciatore
Italian, active in Naples, 1718-1768

About this artwork

Filippo Falciatore was a mid-century master who excelled at an ornamental rococo style with baroque flourishes. This rare sheet juxtaposes violently entwined mythological figures with decorative floral motifs. The subject would have been a familiar part of the landscape of Naples; the famous ancient sculpture known as the Farnese Hercules appears in the the Art Institute’s Neapolitan crèche. Here the tragic hero flings his manservant Lichas into the Aegean Sea. Hercules’s wife, Deianira, had sent Lichas to deliver a cloak dipped in the toxic blood of a centaur who had tried to abduct her, believing the potion would keep Hercules faithful. Instead it drove him mad and eventually killed him.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Filippo Falciatore

Title

Hercules and Lichas

Place

Italy (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1738–1768

Medium

Black chalk with pen and brown ink and brush and blue-green wash on pieced ivory laid paper, pricked for transfer

Dimensions

46 × 32.9 cm (18 1/8 × 13 in.)

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. William O. Hunt Fund

Reference Number

2014.655

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/223044/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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