Harvard Art Museums > 2000.199: Hercules Strangling the Nemean Lion Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Hercules Strangling the Nemean Lion (Peter Paul Rubens) , 2000.199,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 05, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/178555. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text Rubens was a masterful painter of oil sketches, which he used to generate pictorial ideas and display them to his patrons and workshop assistants. This sketch may relate to a commission he received in 1639 for a series of hunting scenes for the Royal Palace in Madrid. It depicts the first of the twelve labors of Hercules: strangling the lion sent by the goddess Hera to menace the region of Nemea, in southern Greece. Hercules donned the impenetrable skin thereafter. In Rome, Rubens had drawn studies of the Farnese Hercules — one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity — and the muscular hero, a human who achieved immortality through his deeds, was a favorite subject. Here Rubens emphasizes the confrontation between man and beast. Aside from some impasto in the lion’s mane and in the torso of Hercules, Rubens painted thinly, leaving visible the ground layer, or imprimatura, whose horizontal streaks enhance the impression of swift movement and action. Identification and Creation Object Number 2000.199 People Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish (Siegen, Westphalia 1577 - 1640 Antwerp, Belgium) Title Hercules Strangling the Nemean Lion Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date c. 1639 Culture Flemish Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/178555 Physical Descriptions Medium Oil with traces of red chalk on cradled panel Dimensions 23 x 39.2 cm (9 1/16 x 15 7/16 in.) framed: 40.9 x 56.9 x 7 cm (16 1/8 x 22 3/8 x 2 3/4 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Prince Lichnowsky, Kuchelna and Berlin. Fritz Hess, Berlin-Dahlem (? - 1931); his sale, [Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, September 1, 1931, cat. no. 10]; Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Kuhn, Cambridge, MA (1931-1961) gift; to Charles L. Kuhn III, St. Louis, MO (1961-2000), bequest; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, MA. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Dr. Charles and Nobuko Kuhn in honor of Charles L. Kuhn, Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1930-1968 Accession Year 2000 Object Number 2000.199 Division European and American Art Contact am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History Svetlana Alpers, The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard (1971), vol. IX, p. 274 n. 338, fig. 198 Peter C. Sutton and Marjorie E. Wieseman, Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens, Yale University Press (New Haven/London, 2004), cat. no. 40, p. 252, color illus. Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 215 Anne T. Woollett, Davide Gasparotto, and Jeffrey Spier, Rubens: Picturing Antiquity, exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, 2021), pl. 23 Exhibition History Calming the Tempest with Peter Paul Rubens, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/22/2001 - 03/17/2002 Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, 10/02/2004 - 01/30/2005; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, 03/02/2005 - 05/15/2005; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, 06/14/2005 - 09/11/2005 Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011 32Q: 2400 French/Italian/Spanish, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/01/2024 - 08/05/2024 32Q: 2300 Dutch & Flemish, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 09/08/2017 Rubens: Picturing Antiquity, The Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, 11/10/2021 - 01/24/2022 Subjects and Contexts Google Art Project Related Articles Art Talk: Rubens—Brush and Movement September 29, 2020 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu