Hercules and Deianira

The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. On a journey, Hercules and Deianira came to a river where the centaur Nessus was the ferryman. While carrying Deianira across he attempted to ravish her. Hercules, already on the further bank, drew his bow and slew Nessus. The centaur, knowing that his blood was now poisoned with the hydra's gall from Hercules's arrow, cunningly told Deianira with his dying words to collect it, as it would one day serve as a love-potion. While Hercules was away in distant parts, Deianira, at home in Trachis, learned that he was courting another woman, Iola. She sent a messenger to him with a gift, the tunic smeared with Nessus "love-potion," that was poisoned. When Hercules put it on the poison began to corrode his flesh which led to his death.

Gossart's painting shows the couple in happier time, their interlocking legs a sign of conjugal bliss. With mouths slightly open in a sigh, they stare lovingly into each other's eyes. They sit in a marble-paneled niche, the panels below showing a selection of scenes from the life of Hercules. Deianira sits on the tunic that will later cause his demise.

The beautifully composed crossed legs of the couple, and in particular the pose of Deianira, were in part inspired by Jacopo de' Barbari's engraving of Cleopatra. Gossart seems to have followed even more closely the model of Jacopo Ripanda's Neptune and Amphitrite figures,