Hercules fighting with Antaeus

The museum is unusually frank about this one. Its catalogue counts the canvas among the weaker pictures of the ten, gives a good part of the painting to Zurbarán's workshop rather than to his own hand, and singles out the head of Hercules. It also notes that the left arm and hand of Antaeus look as though they were never finished. The reason may be practical. Two wrestlers locked upright make a tall shape, and the canvas is wide, so the figures are jammed into a format that fights them. Zurbarán delivered ten of these in 1634 for a royal commission in Madrid, working at speed and far from the convent subjects he knew. The struggle takes place in a dark cave.