Few works by Gossaert better justify the claim of early authors that he was the first to introduce mythological subjects and nudes to Netherlandish art. The Greek hero Hercules was charged with stealing the red cattle of the monster Geryon, which he then brought to Italy. There, the giant Cacus stole them and hid them in a cave. Gossaert did not depict Cacus as a fire-breathing cannibal, as he is described in Roman sources, but instead, as he did in Cain Killing Abel, concentrated on the interaction of the muscular figures. The pen drawing was finished with the brush, apparently not applied as extensively in Netherlandish art before, background and animals are quickly sketched in a characteristic quivering line. Gossaert borrowed the chest of the fallen Cacus from the Laocoon, excavated only years before he arrived in Rome and transferred by Pope Julius II, to the Vatican, where it is today. No painting of this composition is known, but several works on the theme of Hercules by Gossaert are documented. (http://www.metmuseum.org)