Hercules & Telephus, Naples

Hercules And Telephus

IV Style, Basilica, Herculaneum

This painting is thought to reproduce a Hellenistic original. The scene represents the founding myth of the Attalid rulers of Pergamum. Hercules recognizes his natural son Telephus (suckled by a doe in lower left), in the presence of Arcadia (seated.)

The painting has been criticized by art historians because of a perceived lack of unity in technique and composition. The figures look, to some critics, as if they had been copied from several different originals.