# Hercules and the Centaur Nessus [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ROSSI, Vincenzo de']() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Marble ## Commentary Vincenzo de' Rossi seems to have begun the series showing the labours of Hercules around 1562. The statues were initially intended to ornament a fountain. By 1568, two of the marbles, Hercules and Cacus and Hercules and the Centaur were completed. The sculptor seems to have worked on a third, Hercules and Antaeus, in the years immediately following, and his workshop had completed seven of the labours and roughed out the remaining five by 1584. Heracles's second labour was to slay the Lernaean Hydra, which Hera had raised just to slay Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles used a cloth to cover his mouth and nose to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He cut off the Hydra's one immortal head with a golden sword given to him by Athena. Heracles dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood, and so his second task was complete. Later, he used an arrow dipped in the Hydra's poisonous blood to kill the centaur Nessus. The statues in the series are remarkable, dynamic compositions with fierce poses. ## Related artworks - [Bacchus and a Satyr]() - [Dying Adonis]() - [Hercules and Antaeus]() - [Hercules and Cacus]() - [Hercules and Diomedes]() - [Hercules and Hyppolyta]() - [Hercules and Hyppolyta]() - [Hercules and the Centaur Nessus]() - [Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar]() - [Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar]() - [Hercules Upholding the Celestial Globe]() - [Hercules Upholding the Celestial Globe]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()