We have always been fascinated by Hercules. The beefy demigod was depicted in countless statues, coins and vases in ancient Rome and Greece, paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance onwards, and starred in Disney’s most underrated film in 1997. This exhibition at the Zwinger in Dresden aims to get the heart of our interest in Hercules through a display of more than two millennia-worth of depictions (until 28 June). There are classical statues that emphasise the hero’s strength, as well as neoclassical works, such as a bronze copy from the late 17th century of the mighty Farnese Heracles. But the show also aims to complicate the idea of Hercules as a byword for brawn. Rubens’s painting Drunk Hercules Supported by a couple of Satyrs (c. 1613/14), which shows the demigod as a tottering fool, is one of several works that emphasise Hercules’s flaws.
Find out more from the Zwinger’s website
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary
