François Lemoyne
French, 1688-1737
Hercules Seated, study for Hercules and Omphale
INV-1514
François Lemoyne
French, 1688-17371724
Hercules Seated, study for Hercules and Omphale
François Lemoyne French, 1688-1737 →chalkdrawings (visual works)
Date
1724
Medium
Red, black, and white chalk, with stumping, on light brown laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper
Dimensions
40.2 × 32 cm (15 7/8 × 12 5/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Carefully distributed across a tan sheet of paper, these studies of a male nude for the figure of Hercules were made in preparation for François Lemoyne’s masterpiece, Hercules and Omphale, painted in Rome in 1724. In the myth illustrated by the work, the Classical hero is reluctantly forced by Omphale to submit to spinning wool like a woman. Interweaving the red, black, and white chalks made famous by Antoine Watteau in the prior decade, this drawing heralds the grace and beauty of the French Rococo while reflecting the powerful experience of Michelangelo’s Sistine Ignudi.
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