Ercole getta Diomede in pasto ai suoi cavalli

This 1685 canvas of Hercules casting Diomedes to his own man-eating horses at the Fondazione Cariplo collections depicts the eighth labor of Hercules — the capture of the flesh-eating mares of the Thracian king Diomedes, who fed his horses on human flesh as a demonstration of royal power. After capturing the mares, Hercules fed Diomedes himself to them as an act of poetic justice. The subject combined extreme violence with moral justice in a way perfectly suited to Baroque painting's taste for dramatic action and exemplary narrative. Giordano reveled in mythological violence: his battle scenes, his labors of Hercules, his mythological combats all display a mastery of dynamic multi-figure composition and muscular anatomy that made him the preferred painter for palace decoration celebrating martial and heroic virtues. The Fondazione Cariplo, Milan's major charitable foundation, holds a significant collection of Italian art that includes this vigorous example of Giordano's mythological narrative painting at its most energetically physical.

The composition explodes with violent energy as Hercules hurls Diomedes amid the rearing horses, creating a dynamic vortex of bodies and movement. Giordano's bold, rapid brushwork conveys the brutal action with visceral immediacy, while warm Venetian color unifies the tumultuous scene.