In this scene, hercules must face a fabulous animal that represents a danger to men and symbolizes the evils and vices that the son of zeus and alcmene defeats after proving his cunning and strength. Evil is represented by a serpent with a strange figure with many heads, which they called hydra and had such a nature that three heads were born from one of those that were cut off, so that the more they worked on its death [. . ] the more it multiplied its life by its nature. Thus enrique de villena begins the story of the terrible danger represented by the hydra, whose end the inhabitants of the swampy region of lerna, near argos, had attempted to end, where there was no rest or peace because of the harmful monster. To resolve this situation, hercules, covered with the skin of the nemean lion that he had already killed in the previous episode (p1243), had to replace strength with ingenuity. The hydra was cornered and destroyed by fire and its ashes were then buried. In line with other paintings in the series, zurbarán highlights the powerful figure of hercules in the center of the scene, in the midst of punishing the monster and strongly illuminated against the darkness that surrounds the background. Once again, the painter relied on cornelis cort's prints to solve the composition, taking aspects from several episodes of the flemish series, although especially from the one with the same theme, where the protagonist's nephew, iolao, also appears. This one, appearing on the right of the scene, carries the burning torch that would complete the destruction of the hydra. The crab located at the hero's feet is taken from the same print - in the engraving, an endless series of animals also appear, including scorpions - and whose presence we find an explanation in the work of baltasar de victoria, who tells that a canker came out of the lerna lagoon to help the portentous hydra. The main differences with the representation of the engraver cornelis cort are found in the stage where the episode takes place, closed and claustrophobic in zurbarán's painting, very far from the bright exterior of the flamenco proposal. The human types also vary, covered in the canvas with a rough and popular character that perhaps sought to spanishize the myth. The burnished heads, executed in a very summary manner in relation to the modeling of the bodies, stand out for their tan tone, as if we were before villagers who had shed their clothing for the occasion (text extracted from ruiz, l. In: el palacio del rey planeta. Felipe iv y el buen retiro, museo nacional del prado, 2005, p. 149). Object Type: painting. Genre: mythological painting. Date: 1634. Place of creation: Spain. Dimensions: height: 136 cm (53.5 in); width: 167 cm (65.7 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Museo del Prado. Hércules lucha con la hidra de Lerna, por Zurbarán
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