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Your galleryHercules and the Lernaean Hydra
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Compare Hercules’s straight silhouette at the left with the Hydra’s twisting necks. How does the open space between them hold the confrontation in suspense?
Hercules faces the many-headed Hydra in the second of his mythological labors. Moreau prepared the painting through detailed studies, including drawings of live snakes at the Paris zoo, before exhibiting it at the Salon in 1876. Despite the subject’s violence, the confrontation pauses before a decisive blow, with the small upright hero facing a towering creature.
Oil on canvas · 179.3 × 154 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Symbolism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra
- Artist
- Gustave Moreau (French, 1826-1898)
- Date
- 1875–76
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 179.3 × 154 cm (70 9/16 × 60 5/8 in.); Framed: 226.7 × 201.9 cm (89 1/4 × 79 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.