The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood (1542): Art, History and Details

The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood (1542) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Sebald Beham (German, 1500–1550).

The work and its context

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

Perceiving the princess Iole as a rival, Hercules’s wife Deianeira soaks a shirt in the blood of the centaur Nessus and sends it to her husband. Deianeira believes the blood is a love potion that will secure Hercules’s undying affection, but it is actually poisonous. Here, a servant named Lichas delivers the toxic shirt. Beham was one of several German printmakers referred to today as the “Little Masters.” They established their artistic prowess by engraving remarkably small prints, appealing to collectors fascinated with miniature objects and curiosities.

Object facts

• Title: The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood
• Date: 1542
• Creator attribution: Hans Sebald Beham (German, 1500–1550)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1950.459

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection

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.