Tapestry Square Depicting Heracles
4th-5th century
The Greek hero Heracles (known as Hercules in the Roman world) was tasked with 12 labors as penance for the murder of his wife and children, brought on by the wrath of the goddess Hera (Juno). His first labor was to kill the Nemean Lion, a near invincible beast that no human could slay. This stunning red tapestry square depicts a beared man who appears to be Heracles encountering a lion, perhaps the Nemean Lion itself. A female figure, possibly Omphale, Hippolyta, or Hera herself, observes from the center-left of the composition. Four smaller lions surround the central circle, enhancing the composition’s association with leonine pride and strength.
Lions carried many meanings in late antiquity. In Jewish scriptures, King David was said to have killed a lion (1 Samuel 17:36) and the prophet Daniel was famously thrown into a lions’ den (Daniel 6). In early medieval Bibles, lions came to most commonly symbolize the evangelist Mark. Leonine motifs are also common in later Islamic art. Regardless of who exactly the central figures are, it is likely that this tapestry would have been woven in to a tunic. The vivid detail and coloration indicate that, regardless of religious belief, the wearer would have been of an elevated social status.
Compare with #7035 in the collection of the Benaki Museum, which depicts some of the labors of Heracles. Compare also with the similarly ambiguous “Hero and Lion” silk (BZ.1934.1) in the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection.
Artwork Details
Title:
Tapestry Square Depicting Heracles
Date:
4th-5th century
Geography:
Egypt
Classification:
Textile
Materials:
Linen and wool
Dimensions:
13.5 x 12.75 cm (5.25 x 5 in)
Repository:
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Accession Number:
McMullen 2018.26
Tellalian Number:
Tellalian 1988-05000
Donor:
Barbara and Donald Tellalian
Provenance:
Purchased from Gail Martin, Martin and Ullman Artweave Textile Gallery, New York, NY on 2 May 1988. Prior provenance unknown.
Exhibition History:
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Beyond the Pharaohs: Egypt and the Copts in the 2nd-7th Centuries, AD, 10 February - 16 April 1989. https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/beyond-pharaohs. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 17 May - 15 July 1989. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Deities, Saints, and Allegories: Late Antique and Coptic Textiles, 21 October - 6 March 1994. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, 14 February - 31 May 2015. https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/exhibitions/rip/
Publication History:
Nicgorski, Ann M. “The Fate of Serapis: A Paradigm for Transformations in the Culture and Art of Late Roman Egypt.” In Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, edited by Lisa R. Brody and Gail L. Hoffman, 153–66, plate 40. Boston College: McMullen Museum of Art, distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Conservation History:
Unknown month, 1990: Textile Conservation Center, North Andover, MA