Hercules Killing Antaeus

Similar to the fields of painting and sculpture, Italian graphic arts, too, much favoured scenes from classical mythology. Hercules, the son of the god Jupiter and a mortal female Alcmene, was admired for his strength and courage. His heroic acts were widely depicted: the dramatic renditions with the muscular Hercules fighting his enemies were visually interesting and, in addition, entailed a moral message. Hercules’s adversary, the colossus Antaeus, was unbeatable if any part of his body was touching the ground. Hercules thus had to lift him up in order to win over him. The bodies of the two figures are modelled by cross-hatching, which results in a more dynamic rendition than using parallel lines. The faces, gestures of hands and hair jointly reflect the tension of the duel. Raimondi drew on his knowledge of Albrecht Dürer’s prints both in the technique of engraving and in the intensified expressivity.