HeraclesOmphale1.0093

HeraclesOmphale1.0093_Makart

OGCMA, s.v. "Heracles and Omphale"

Hans Makart (1840-1884), "Herkules und Omphale" (1870-1872), oil sketch on canvas, 43 x 28.5 cm; unknown ownership — once (1923) in Vienna, Dorotheum, nr. 387; and (1968) Kunst-Auktion Dorotheum, nr. 68 tafel 55

Frodl, Gerbert. 1974. Hans Makart: Monographie und Werkverzeichnis. Salzburg: Residenz Verlag. — Item 166.

The image at right is captured from Frodl, ad figure 166.

Monochromatic painting of a partially draped woman posing above a dark, abstract figure holding a long object

The scandalous role-reversal is also treated thus in Ovid's Ars Amatoria 2.217-24: "That hero who outlasted his step-mother's putting monsters in his way even gained heaven, which he earlier held on his own shoulders; people believe that he joined Ionian girls, that he grasped the distaff and carded slubby wool. / The hero of Tiryns obeyed the command of his mistress! Come, consider whether you wouldn't also endure what Heracles endured!" (RTM trans.)

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.