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Colby College

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

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Poetry And Paintings: Luca Giordano's Three Depictions Of Hercules' Death, Kathleen Carroll Apr 2015

Poetry And Paintings: Luca Giordano's Three Depictions Of Hercules' Death, Kathleen Carroll

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Hercules is one of the most commonly portrayed classical figures in modern culture, with a plethora of movies and television shows depicting his adventures; this popularity is not a modern fad, however, for representations of Hercules have been a constant throughout history. During his career, the Baroque artist Luca Giordano (1634-1705) produced three different versions of Hercules' demise: the Colby Museum of Art's "Hercules on the Funeral Pyre" (1665-1670), "Hercules on the Pyre" (1687-1700) currently in El Escorial, and the Prado Museum's "Hercules on the Pyre" (~1697). This project in progress focuses on the different ways Giordano portrays Hercules' destiny …