# Hercules and Achelous [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [FONTANA, Annibale]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Rock crystal, enamel, and gold, 10 x 13 cm ## Commentary This engraved plaque shows a scene from the life of the mythological hero Hercules and was initially set into a sumptuous, gilded casket that belonged to the ducal Gonzaga family of Mantua. Hercules was famous for his strength and virtue, and princes often surrounded themselves with his image as an ideal for \(and an idealized image of\) themselves. The rivalry of Hercules and the river god Achelous was narrated in the Roman poet Ovid's The Metamorphoses. Both were suitors of Deianira, the beautiful Greek maiden who became Hercules's wife. Annibale Fontana's genius as an engraver comes through in details such as the spiky underbrush of the riverbank and the shaggy lion's skin that Hercules wore. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Bust of Ottavio Farnese]() - [Bust of Ottavio Farnese]() - [Detail of the façade]() - [Drug Jar for Mithridate and Drug Jar for Theriac]() - [Drug Jar for Theriac]() - [Francesco Ferdinando as Hercules Plucking the Apples of the Hesperides \(reverse\)]() - [Francesco Ferdinando d'Ávalos \(obverse\)]() - [Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo \(obverse\)]() - [Hercules and Achelous]() - [Hercules and Nessus]() - [Hercules Attacking the Lernean Hydra]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()