Giorgio Ghisi
Hercules Resting from His Labors1567

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Engraving of a muscular nude male figure reclining in a landscape, with a club, lion's head, and serpent nearby, and a detailed cityscape and mountains in the distance

Artist or Maker: Giorgio Ghisi
Italy, Mantua, 1520-1582
Title: Hercules Resting from His Labors
Place Made: Italy
Date Made: 1567
Medium: Engraving
Dimensions: Sheet: 10 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (26.67 × 39.37 cm) Image: 10 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (26.67 × 39.37 cm)
Credit Line: Mary Stansbury Ruiz Bequest
Accession Number: M.88.91.28
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: The hero Hercules reclines in a lush landscape, resting after having completed the twelve labors, challenging feats he accomplished in the service of King Eurystheus. Around him, a diverse array of vegetation grows, including violets, thistles, and cornflowers. Beyond, a boat-filled bay and a sprawling city with towers, turrets, and ancient fortifications fill a mountainous background. The figure of Hercules in this engraving relates to a lunette from the Sala degli Stucchi, a room in the Mantuan leisure palace of the powerful Gonzaga family called the Palazzo Te, which was decorated with stucco bas-relief sculptures and designed by Giulio Romano during the 1520s and 1530s. Ghisi may have relied upon a drawing by Giulio for Hercules’s frame; however, the landscape appears to be the engraver’s own invention, the unique details of the buildings and plants suggesting a fusion of observed and imagined elements.

Claire Spadafora Baes

2024
Selected Bibliography: Bartsch, Adam von. The Illustrated Bartsch. New York: Abaris Books, 1978.
Boorsch, Suzanne; Lewis, Michal; Lewis, R.E. The Engravings of Giorgio Ghisi. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985
Davis, Bruce. Mannerist Prints: International Style in the Sixteenth Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.

Giorgio Ghisi
Hercules Resting from His Labors1567

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Artist or Maker: Giorgio Ghisi
Italy, Mantua, 1520-1582
Title: Hercules Resting from His Labors
Place Made: Italy
Date Made: 1567
Medium: Engraving
Dimensions: Sheet: 10 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (26.67 × 39.37 cm) Image: 10 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (26.67 × 39.37 cm)
Credit Line: Mary Stansbury Ruiz Bequest
Accession Number: M.88.91.28
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: The hero Hercules reclines in a lush landscape, resting after having completed the twelve labors, challenging feats he accomplished in the service of King Eurystheus. Around him, a diverse array of vegetation grows, including violets, thistles, and cornflowers. Beyond, a boat-filled bay and a sprawling city with towers, turrets, and ancient fortifications fill a mountainous background. The figure of Hercules in this engraving relates to a lunette from the Sala degli Stucchi, a room in the Mantuan leisure palace of the powerful Gonzaga family called the Palazzo Te, which was decorated with stucco bas-relief sculptures and designed by Giulio Romano during the 1520s and 1530s. Ghisi may have relied upon a drawing by Giulio for Hercules’s frame; however, the landscape appears to be the engraver’s own invention, the unique details of the buildings and plants suggesting a fusion of observed and imagined elements.

Claire Spadafora Baes

2024
Selected Bibliography: Bartsch, Adam von. The Illustrated Bartsch. New York: Abaris Books, 1978.
Boorsch, Suzanne; Lewis, Michal; Lewis, R.E. The Engravings of Giorgio Ghisi. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985
Davis, Bruce. Mannerist Prints: International Style in the Sixteenth Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.