Hercules and the Hydra (late 1500s-early 1600s): Art, History and Details

Hercules and the Hydra (late 1500s-early 1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Hercules slayed the Lernean Hydra as the second of the ancient hero’s twelve labors. When one of the nine snake-like heads was destroyed, two grew back. Hercules cauterized each stump, allowing him eventually to kill the monster. The object he holds may have been a club, sword, sickle, or torch. The sinuous, scaly Hydra and the defined musculature presented challenging opportunities for sculptors working in bronze. The raw, tumultuous energy and twisting form-associated with artists of the late 1500s-contrasts to Jacopo Sansovino’s earlier Virgin and Child (1951.316).

Object facts

• Title: Hercules and the Hydra
• Date: late 1500s-early 1600s
• Culture: Northern Europe, late 16th-early 17th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 47.5 x 18 x 18 cm (18 11/16 x 7 1/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1973.167

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31–78.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. c

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.