Hércules lucha con el león de Nemea

In 1634 Philip the Fourth of Spain was fitting out a grand new hall in his Buen Retiro palace in Madrid, a room meant to broadcast the power of his reign. High on the walls, above the windows, went ten paintings of the labours of Hercules, all by Zurbaran, because the Spanish Habsburgs liked to trace their line back to the hero himself. This is the first labour. Hercules has the Nemean lion in a wrestler's grip, its jaws forced up, his whole weight bearing down. Zurbaran does not give us the victory. He gives us the middle of the fight, when it could still go either way, two heavy bodies locked against a low, smouldering sky. The flattery was for the king, whose own struggles were meant to look this heroic to anyone standing in the hall below.