Hercules and Omphale

At the center of this lush pleasure scene lounges Omphale, queen of Lydia, an ancient country bordering on the Aegean. After she bought Hercules, wearing his lion's pelt at the left, as a slave and her lover, he served her for three years, ridding the land of robbers and other pests and fathering at least three of her sons.



In Luigi Garzi's mythological picture, ancient architecture mingles with contemporary clothing of the early 1700s. Despite the splendor of the architecture, Garzi achieved an intimate effect, partly through the many anecdotal elements: women lean in over the wall, a child plays with a tiny dog, and putti frolic to the music of Hercules's tambourine. Garzi successfully combined these light-hearted elements, typical of the Rococo, with High Baroque's physicality and grandness of gesture.