Hercules and Diomedes

Antoine-Jean Gros's Hercules and Diomedes of 1835, his late mythological canvas, depicts the hero capturing the man-eating mares of Diomedes by throwing the Thracian king himself into his own horses' path. Gros painted this late work at a period when his career's significance was waning — the battle paintings that had defined his Napoleonic success were superseded by Romantic painting's new priorities, and Gros felt increasingly out of place. He died by drowning the same year the painting was completed, possibly by suicide, a tragic end to the career that had defined French battle painting.

Gros renders the violent wrestling match between the two mythological figures with muscular energy and dramatic lighting. The dark palette and the intensity of the physical struggle contrast with the more decorative approach of his other late mythological works.