Le Choix d'Hercule

Carracci painted this in 1596 for a small private study, a camerino, in the Farnese palace in Rome, made for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. It sets out an old moral fable. The young Hercules has stopped at a crossroads and must choose his life. On one side stands Virtue, dressed in red and blue, pointing up a steep rocky path toward a winged horse, Pegasus, which happened to be a Farnese family emblem. On the other, Pleasure, in a thin, slipping dress, gestures toward an easy flat road strewn with playing cards, masks and instruments. Carracci had recently come to Rome and filled himself with Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling and the ancient sculpture around the city, and you can feel that muscular, classical weight in every figure. A poet at the lower left writes the hero's deeds down, promising him lasting fame. The panel is now in the Capodimonte museum in Naples.