HeraclesOmphale1.0015_Bassano

HeraclesOmphale1.0015_Bassano

OGCMA, s.v. "Heracles and Omphale"
Kunsthistorisches Museum

Francesco da Ponte, called Francesco Bassano (1549-1592), "Hercules and Omphale", oil on canvas, ca. 1587, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. 3575 (280).

The queen of Lydia, Omphale, has purchased Heracles, whose thralldom to her will expiate his murder of Iole's brother Iphitus.

Note how Bassano busily enages the secondary characters in the tasks of everyday life. Omphale (left) and Hercules (right) are portrayed in modest manner. He must be narrating his glory-days to the women attending him, for the Lernaean Hydra, Cerberus, and the Pillars are depicted on the tapestry above him like a caption.

Oil painting: Omphale, with a staff, observes Hercules, dressed in women's clothes, spinning amongst women and children

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.