Hercules and Deianira

Hercules and Deianira stare lovingly into each other's eyes, their interlocking legs a sign of their conjugal bliss. For the poses of the figures Gossaert considered Jacopo de' Barbari's Cleopatra engraving (British Museum) and also recalled Jacopo Ripanda's Neptune and Amphitrite, a fresco that he saw in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, where he made a drawing of the Spinario. Hercules has put down his club, resting from the labors and events represented in small panels below: killing Antaeus, with the Hydra of Lerna, wearing the skin of the Nemean lion, cleaning the Augean stables, and... Mehr ...