Hercules and Antaeus

Title: Hercules and Antaeus

Artist: Antonio Del Pollaiolo

Location: Uffizi

Date: 1475

Size: 3x6 in.

Medium: Tempera on Panel

Significance of the work:

The story told in the second of Antonio Del Pollaiolo’s Hercules paintings, illustrates Hercules’ great strength as he crushes Antaeus, a famed wrestler. Pollaiolo’s work was characterized by an ferocity that Vasari sees in Pollaiolo’s depiction of Hercules, “In crushing his antagonist is clearly apparent, every muscle and nerve of the body being strained to ensure the destruction of his opponent”. Pollaiolo depicted the same subject in his more famous work, a bronze statuette, that is also found in Florence in the Bargello.

Other sources: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/HerculesAndAntaeusAntonioDelPollaiuolo.html

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Photo from: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/RM/AntaeusPollaiuolo.jpg