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.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Prints and Drawings
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Artist
- Filippo Falciatore
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Title
- Hercules and Lichas
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Place
- Italy (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1738–1768
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Medium
- Black chalk with pen and brown ink and brush and blue-green wash on pieced ivory laid paper, pricked for transfer
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Dimensions
- 46 × 32.9 cm (18 1/8 × 13 in.)
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Credit Line
- Mr. and Mrs. William O. Hunt Fund
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Reference Number
- 2014.655
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/223044/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
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