Aided by Eeriboia, Hermes Carries Off the Exhausted Ares from the Sleeping Sons of Aloeus (recto); Sketch of One of the Sleeping Sons of Aloeus (verso)
<p>In book 5 of the <em>Iliad</em>, Homer tells the ancient Greek myth of Ares, god of war, captured by the giants Otos and Ephialtes: “Ares suffered when . . . the sons of Aloeus imprisoned [him] in a vessel of bronze. Ares would have perished had not fair Eeriboia, stepmother of the sons of Aloeus, told Hermes, who stole him away when he was already worn out by the severity of his bondage.”<br>Fuseli, who was a scholar as well as an artist, delighted in flaunting his classical learning. In the background, Hermes lifts the exhausted Ares, whose elegant pose Fuseli appropriated from one of Michelangelo’s late drawings, a study for the<em>Colonna Pietà</em>.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1819
- Dimensions
- 52.3 × 73 cm (20 5/8 × 28 3/4 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Henry Fuseli
Artist
Painting
Henry Fuseli was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art who spent much of his career in Britain.
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More by Henry Fuseli
Sheet of Studies: Three Female Heads, an Arm and a Hand. Verso: Heroic Male Nude and a Face in Profile
1817 · Graphite and chalk on paper. Verso: graphite on paper
An Intimate Concert
1814 · graphite on laid paper
Dante Swoons before the Soaring Souls of Paolo and Francesca, Virgil at his Side
1813 · Etching and aquatint on ivory wove paper
Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers
1812 · Oil paint on canvas
The Slaying of Red Comyn by Robert the Bruce
1810 · Pen and brown iron gall ink, with brush and brown and gray wash, over chalk (recto), and black chalk (verso), on tan laid paper
Perseus Starting from the Cave of the Gorgons
1810 · Oil and oil wash, over graphite and with touches of pen and black ink, on tan laid paper, laid down on off-white Japanese paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Henry Fuseli
- Year
- 1819
- Dimensions
- 52.3 × 73 cm (20 5/8 × 28 3/4 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1819-100678
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified