Hercules and Lichas

Filippo Falciatore was a mid-century master who excelled at an ornamental rococo style with baroque flourishes. This rare sheet juxtaposes violently entwined mythological figures with decorative floral motifs. The subject would have been a familiar part of the landscape of Naples; the famous ancient sculpture known as the Farnese Hercules appears in the the Art Institute’s Neapolitan crèche. Here the tragic hero flings his manservant Lichas into the Aegean Sea. Hercules’s wife, Deianira, had sent Lichas to deliver a cloak dipped in the toxic blood of a centaur who had tried to abduct her, believing the potion would keep Hercules faithful. Instead it drove him mad and eventually killed him.