Hercules and Omphale

This painting is an extremely rare example of a secular subject amongst the works of Bernardo Cavallino, a major, talented 17th-century Neapolitan painter who died at a young age. This work is thought to have been painted when the artist was about 34 years old. The rendering of light from the left and against a dark background is typical of the superb Carravaggist expression of the Neapolitan school. The subject tells the tale of Hercules, who has completed his twelve labors and is set to work spinning thread for the Lydian queen Omphale. It seems that the hero, confident in his physical prowess, is troubled by the women's work of spinning thread, and he becomes the butt of jokes in the face of his inability to carry out what was a simple task for the women of the day. This meeting between Hercules and Omphale led them to fall in love, but the uneasy expression on the face of Amore, seen in the shadows, suggests the unfortunate outcome of such love. The influence of Jusepe de Ribera can be seen in the roughhewn depiction of Hercules's body. Unlike the mathematically logical spatial compositions of the Renaissance, this painting reveals the strong influence of Caravaggio, in a Baroque space alive with contrasting light and darkness and pigments. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 20)