The Camerino was the cardinal’s study. The centerpiece of this room’s
decoration is the Choice of Hercules (c. 1595–1597). Hercules at the
Crossroad is another title for this theme. Hercules is shown between
allegorical ¿ gures of Virtue and Vice. Vice, at right, is provocatively dressed,
and she gestures toward the nearby woods, a place for rest and dalliance.
Near her are musical instruments and the theatrical mask of comedy. Note
that she stands on Hercules’s left, his sinister side, which is shadowed and
vulnerable to vice. Virtue is more fully robed, with a robust ¿ gure, and she
points toward a steep path up a mountain, indicating that the attainment of
virtue is never easy. She stands close to Hercules, lending her strength to his
right side. At the top of the mountain is the winged horse Pegasus, a symbol
connected to virtue and fame. The male ¿ gure in the corner with the book
and laurel wreath seems ready to record Hercules’s choice. This was not
mere decoration but a program designed by one of the cardinal’s associates
to celebrate the cardinal’s virtues while illustrating the victory of virtue over
temptation. The mythological subject was given a moral gloss. The rest of
the room was frescoed, but because this centerpiece was rendered in oil
on canvas, the Farnese family took it with them when they later moved to
Naples. The Farnese Hercules (3rd century A.D.) is an ancient sculpture then
in the palace. Annibale used this as a source for his Hercules. The Carracci
also revitalized the Italian tradition of fresco painting, which explains the
exalted reputation that the Farnese Gallery had for centuries.
Our example shows a long view of the Farnese Gallery, which was
frescoed from 1597 to 1600. There is real sculpture on the left wall up to
the cornice line, and the paintings begin at the end above the door. Above
the main cornice, where the coved ceiling rises, everything is illusionistic
painting. The coved vault was designed to look as if easel paintings were
mounted on it. The subject of this cycle was the loves of mythological gods
and goddesses.
Another view of the Farnese Gallery looking up into the vault shows a fresco
with what appear to be 11 framed paintings interspersed with large marble
statues and bronze medallions, but all of it is painted. The long scene in the
center is the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, with Polyphemus and Acis at
the far end.