Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)

A preparatory study for a lost fresco of Hercules and the Hydra, executed by Guercino on the façade of Palazzo Tanari in Bologna in 1618. He had depicted the same subject four years earlier, in a fresco in the Casa Provenzale in Cento, and made a number of studies exploring alternative ways of representing the episode, in preparation for his Bolognese fresco. The present drawing is one of two which show Hercules triumphant over the Hydra, rather than in the midst of battle with the monster: the other drawing, which seems to be slightly earlier in Guercino's exploratory series, is at the Kupferstichkabinett in Basel.