Hercules and Hesione

Bartolomeo Salvestrini painted Hercules and Hesione around 1630, treating a mythological episode from the Trojan cycle. Salvestrini was a Florentine painter who worked in the tradition of Jacopo Ligozzi and the late Florentine Mannerist school. The subject of Hercules rescuing the Trojan princess Hesione from a sea monster allowed for the display of heroic anatomy and dramatic narrative valued in seventeenth-century Florence.

Salvestrini's oil on canvas demonstrates the dramatic chiaroscuro and muscular figure painting characteristic of the Florentine Baroque. The dynamic composition and the warm, rich palette show the influence of contemporary Roman painting on the Florentine tradition.