Art, literature & history
The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood
1542
- Dating
- Exact year
- Held at
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Medium
- engraving
- Collection no.
- 1950.459
- Attribution
- By the artist
- Image rights
- CC0 1.0License details
Sebald Beham. The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood. The Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0 1.0. Compressed full-frame reproduction.
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
About this artwork
The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Receiving the Garment Steeped in Nessus' Blood — Sebald Beham. 1542.
Medium: engraving. Dimensions: .
Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
Perceiving the princess Iole as a rival, Hercules’s wife Deianeira soaks a shirt in the blood of the centaur Nessus and sends it to her husband. Deianeira believes the blood is a love potion that will secure Hercules’s undying affection, but it is actually poisonous. Here, a servant named Lichas delivers the toxic shirt.
Beham was one of several German printmakers referred to today as the “Little Masters.” They established their artistic prowess by engraving remarkably small prints, appealing to collectors fascinated with miniature objects and curiosities.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.