Farnese Hercules

This print shows the colossal figure of Hercules from behind, highlighting his massive, bulging musculature. The hero leans on a club draped with the skin of the Nemean lion, while his right hand, tucked behind his back, holds the golden apples of the Hesperides. At the base, two small figures in contemporary 16th-century clothing look up at the statue, emphasizing its immense physical and historical scale.

In the Renaissance, Hercules was a central figure of Neoplatonic and Stoic thought, representing the 'heroic virtue' and the soul's ability to overcome earthly trials through the 'active life.' Goltzius’s work represents the pinnacle of Dutch engraving and the era's intellectual project to recover and reanimate the moral and physical archetypes of classical antiquity.