id: 160082 accession number: 1997.52.a share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.52.a updated: 2022-06-04 09:01:22.084000 Hercules Resting (recto), 1595–97. Annibale Carracci (Italian, c. 1560-1609). Black chalk heightened with white, squared in black chalk on right, incised (edges of figure); sheet: 35.5 x 52.4 cm (14 x 20 5/8 in.); secondary support: 36.6 x 53.3 cm (14 7/16 x 21 in.); tertiary support: 38.3 x 55 cm (15 1/16 x 21 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1997.52.a title: Hercules Resting (recto) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1595–97 creation date earliest: 1595 creation date latest: 1597 current location: creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, 16th century technique: black chalk heightened with white, squared in black chalk on right, incised (edges of figure) department: Drawings collection: DR - Italian type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Annibale Carracci (Italian, c. 1560-1609) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 35.5 x 52.4 cm (14 x 20 5/8 in.); Secondary Support: 36.6 x 53.3 cm (14 7/16 x 21 in.); Tertiary Support: 38.3 x 55 cm (15 1/16 x 21 5/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: blue paper (faded to brown-green), laid down on beige(1) laid paper, perimeter mounted to tertiary support of white Japanese paper watermarks: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Drawings of Annibale Carracci opening date: 1999-09-26T00:00:00 The Drawings of Annibale Carracci. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (September 26, 1999-January 9, 2000). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). title: From Raphael to the Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome opening date: 2009-05-29T00:00:00 From Raphael to the Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (organizer) (May 29-September 6, 2009). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE [Hôtel Drouot, Paris, summer 1997]; [Talabardon, Paris]. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The squares drawn lightly over this composition suggest that it was used to transfer the design to another surface such as a full-scale cartoon. digital description: To atone for the crime of killing his family, the Greek hero Hercules was required to perform twelve labors. In this final study for a fresco of this subject commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese for the ceiling of his study in his family’s Roman palace, Hercules rests, surrounded by evidence of his toil: the head of the Erymanthian boar he captured, the three golden apples of the Hesperides, and the hide of the Nemean lion on which he sits. The hero’s pose and exaggerated musculature are a result of the artist’s intense study of ancient models, and emulate specific antique sculptures depicting river gods in the Farnese collection. Carracci also worked with full knowledge of Michelangelo’s frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-10), and the pose of Hercules may have been inspired by the reclining figure of Adam in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam scene. wall description: The legacy of Michelangelo’s athletic male nudes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling endured in the work of artists generations later. When Bolognese artist Annibale Carracci was commissioned to paint a ceiling in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome in 1595, he worked with full knowledge of Michelangelo’s creations. This study for Hercules resting after his labors, emblems of his triumphs at his feet, may have been inspired by the reclining figure of Adam in the Creation of Adam scene. The figure also demonstrates Carracci’s knowledge of ancient sculptures, such as a river god then in the Farnese collection. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Carracci, Annibale, and Daniele Benati. The Drawings of Annibale Carracci. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1999. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 34, pp. 136-138 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: P. 11, 46-47, 285; Reproduced: P. 47, cat. no. 13 url: Gasparri, Carlo, David Franklin, Ingrid D. Rowland, and Sebastian Schütze. From Raphael to Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 132, pp. 402-403 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.52.a/1997.52.a_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.52.a/1997.52.a_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.52.a/1997.52.a_full.tif