Artwork
Hercules Kicking Faunus out of Omfale's Bed
Hercules Kicking Faunus out of Omfale's Bed is an oil painting by the Mannerist artist Abraham Bloemaert. It dates from 1607 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Technique & Style
Janssens renders the Ovidian episode with a faithful, narrative-driven approach, organizing the composition around a large bed that dominates the foreground.
The work is executed in oil paint on canvas, measuring 149 by 189 cm. Janssens renders the Ovidian episode with a faithful, narrative-driven approach, organizing the composition around a large bed that dominates the foreground. Omphale reclines nude, while Hercules, enveloped in a blue velvet robe, kicks the faun Pan from the bed with his right foot. Symbolic objects are arranged in the foreground and background, including a carafe referencing wine, a theatrical mask alluding to the inversion of roles, and the Nemean lion's skin with Hercules's club beneath Omphale's hand.
A servant holding a candle appears in the upper portion, illuminating the figures and symbolizing love. The painting is described as a grotesque scene recreated with attention to the Ovidian source, with erotic undertones emphasized by a Cupid figure and putto at the foot of the bed.
The work is held by the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.
History & Provenance
The painting Hercules Kicking Faunus out of Omfale’s Bed is dated to 1607 and executed in oil on canvas measuring 149 × 189 cm. While some sources credit Abraham Bloemaert as the artist, others attribute the work to Abraham Janssens (with Wikidata listing both Janssens I and Bloemaert as creators). The canvas entered Danish ownership through Count Christian Danneskiold‑Samsøe (1702‑1728) or his father Christian Gyldenløve, who brought it to Denmark. In 1731 it was sold at auction as a work of Bloemaert and subsequently became part of the royal collection, today housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.
Context
The painting’s attribution has been debated; early internal records name Abraham Bloemaert as the creator, while later catalogues identify the Flemish artist Abraham Janssens‑5). Janssens, active in the early seventeenth century, produced mythological works such as this 1607 oil on canvas now housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst‑5). Scholarship, especially Patrick de Rynck’s analysis of Ovidian imagery, reads the scene as a moralizing warning against role reversal and travestry, noting symbolic details like the wine carafe and theatrical mask. Consequently, the work exemplifies Flemish Baroque mythological painting that employed classical narratives to convey didactic messages.
Overview
Abraham Bloemaert’s 1607 oil painting, Hercules Kicking Faunus out of Omphale’s Bed, presents a dynamic mythological tableau. Executed in the late Mannerist idiom, the work captures a moment of conflict among semi‑nude figures within an interior space, now part of the collection of Denmark’s Statens Museum for Kunst.
Subject & Meaning
The composition draws on the legend of Hercules’ servitude to the queen Omphale, here shown as a woman reclining in a disordered bed while the hero, a bearded, muscular man, forces a smaller, older faun-like figure, identified as Faunus, out of the scene. A child clings to the bed’s edge, and a winged attendant hovers above, gesturing downward, suggesting divine or narrative commentary on the episode.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Abraham Bloemaert (25 December 1566 – 27 January 1651) was a Dutch painter and printmaker who used etching and engraving.
