In Pompeo Girolamo Batoni’s "Hercules at the Crossroads", two women appear to the young hero and try to persuade him to follow opposite paths in life. Voluptas, in the figure of Venus, tries to tempt him into a life of pleasure and indulgence, while Virtus, in the figure of Minerva, commends the hard-working, laborious path of virtue. Hercules chooses responsibility and fame, and so this parable is seen as a paradigm for an ethical decision.
Batoni captures the moment when Hercules stops to think and weighs up the arguments for and against what is on offer, while putti play with his club and lion-skin. The painter places him at the centre of the composition, heroically naked, between the goddesses. Minerva, bearing her helmet, shield and lance, points to the temple of fame in the background, at the end of a stony path. Venus sits at Hercules’ feet and seductively offers him a rose. Dice, musical instruments and a theatrical mask symbolize the world of pleasure.
The figure of Hercules is a standard feature in the iconography of rulers. During the Baroque period, the myths surrounding him were much used by princes for purposes of self-promotion, which probably explains why Prince Joseph Wenzel von Liechtenstein, the owner of this painting, was so interested in the subject. Batoni’s painting tends towards Neoclassicism, for example in the way it strives for clarity in its narrative presentation. The figures were to be intelligible in outline and in three-dimensional form, and at the same time appropriate to their role in the narrative. In examining the ancient Classical canon of the human figure, the beauty of the body was idealized, but beauty of line was also required. The significance of the outline both in terms of aesthetics and meaning begins to emerge in Batoni’s picture: the contours of Minerva and Hercules himself show up effectively against the background. The figure of Minerva also demonstrates the other insight that Batoni and his contemporaries applied to Classical Antiquity: the painter may have been guided by a sculpture like the Medici Venus, whose harmonious proportions and idealized form embodied the aesthetic ideal of Classical Antiquity. Batoni’s Minerva reveals a similarly elegant and organic standing leg trailing leg motif, equally clear handling of line and concentration on one side. In alluding to the Apollo Belvedere, Batoni not only borrowed the pose, but also adopted the design criteria that characterize the Classical sculpture. Formal clarity is encouraged by an even intensity of light, which entails a rejection of comprehensible lighting conditions. Batoni was admired for his delicate use of colour, although his liking for strong local hues provides a suggestion of Neoclassicism. |
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Oil on canvas
height 99 cm, width 74 cm
Signed and dated bottom right: P.B. 1748
Inv.-No. GE161
Provenance: presumably acquired by Prince Joseph Wenzel von Liechtenstein with GE 163, as it is listed in Dallinger’s 1805 inventory, with reference to a lost 18th-century inventory, in which the pictures are mentioned as being privately owned by Joseph Wenzel in the Herrengasse palace
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