1542
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood is a 1542 by Sebald Beham, a Renaissance work, depicting Aeneas, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man hands another a blood-soaked shirt in a cluttered room. The second man looks uneasy as he takes it. One woman watches from the shadows, her face half-hidden. Deianeira sent the shirt to kill Hercules. She thought the centaur’s blood would keep him faithful. Instead, it burned his skin. This German print from 1542 shows a moment of deadly trickery. Check out the dramatic lighting—it’s called chiaroscuro, where light and dark contrast sharply.
Perceiving the princess Iole as a rival, Hercules’s wife Deianeira soaks a shirt in the blood of the centaur Nessus and sends it to her husband. Deianeira believes the blood is a love potion that will secure Hercules’s undying affection, but it is actually poisonous. Here, a servant named Lichas delivers the toxic shirt. Beham was one of several German printmakers referred to today as the “Little Masters.” They established their artistic prowess by engraving remarkably small prints, appealing to collectors fascinated with miniature objects and curiosities.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Sebald Beham (1500–1550) was a German painter and printmaker, mainly known for his very small engravings.
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