The Infant Hercules Wrestling Snakes House of the Vettii Pompeii

BASIC DETAILS Date: 62-70AD Location: House of the Vettii, Pompeii – room opening to garden, either a guest-room (oecus) or dining room (triclinium) Style: Part of a 4th style wall Technique: Buon fresco – pignment onto wet plaster Size: approx 1m by 1m Subject: Baby Hercules (Herakles) strangles snakes sent by Juno (Hera)

THE MYTHICAL CONTEXT Jupiter (Zeus) seduced the Queen Alcmene in the form of her husband, Amphytryon She became pregnant, and bore two sons – one (Herakles/ Hercules) was the son of Zeus, his brother (Iphicles) was the son of Amphytryon Jupiter’s wife, Juno (Hera) was extremely jealous but couldn’t take her rage out on Jupiter so she targetted the inocent Hercules First she tried to prevent his birth. This failed. Minerva (Athene) brought him to Hera, pretending he was an orphan, and she nursed him out of pity. Her divine milk gave him supernatural strength. However, he suckled so hard she ripped him away and milk sprayed out, creating the Milky Way. Minerva then took him back to his mortal parents. Then Juno tried to murder him in his cot with two snakes, but he had the strength of 10 grown men and strangled them. Her resentment did not stop there – when he was an adult, she caused him to go mad and kill his own wife and children, as a result of which he had to perform 12 labours in atonment. These made him the most famous hero of the ancient world and took him all over the world, ferom Italy to Greece He was the subject of many cults in ancient Greece and Rome His story fits with the themes of divine wrath and also wrongs within a family, as in the Death of Pentheus and Dirke paintings in this house, BUT the baby Hercules was innocent – it was Jupiter that cheated – so he does not die The story is also connected to Thebes as Amphytryon was a later king of Thebes (he was adopted by Pentheus’ grandson, Creon)

A popular tale in art... Above – Attic Red Figure Vase, 5th cent BCE Below – silver tetradrachm from Samos, 4th cent BCE Above, Emperor Caracalla as the infant Hercules, c200CE

THE PAINTING Part of the same 4th style wall as the Death of Pentheus What features make this 4th style? What messages were the owners of this house trying to send with their choice of colours?

People Who do you think each person is and why would they appear? What about the bird in the background? INFANT HERCULES ALCMENE (the mother) AMPHYTRYON (mortal step- father) Probably Hercules’ nurse JUPITER in form of an eagle

Composition Triangle with Hercules as focus Gaze tends to be first drawn to Alcmene/ Apmhytryon and then to what they are looking at Gaze directed to Hercules by other characters looking towards him Amphytryon and Hercules heroically nude

Stylistic features Which stylistic features can you spot? How convincing is the sense of depth?

Stylistic features Depth achieved by: ¾ views (nurse’s body in ¾ from behind, Alcmene’s face ¾) Highlighting/ shadowing/ shading (see Hercules’ foremost leg, golden table under Amphystryon’s foot, Amphys=tryon’s robes) Clear ight source from top left Lots of overlapping (Alcmene behind Amhytryon) BUT no figures behind Hercules maintains focus on him Foreshortening (Hercules’ front foor, nurses’ foot) Scale – architecture becomes smaller in background Perspective – objects recede into background towards a vanishing point Atmospheric haze – softer, lighter colours used in background so objects seem to fade as they are further away (Jupiter’s eagle, Alcmene’s robes)

Mood No real sense of danger, despite the alarm of the surrounding figures No expression of distress on Hercules’ face Viewer knows from myth Hercules will be fine Peaceful contrast to Pentheus on next wall