(Augsburg 1688-1742 Graz)
Hercules and the Nemean lion, design form a ceiling fresco, c. 1732/33, black chalk on laid paper, inscribed "Floret inv: pin: et delineavit" in pen and brown ink at lower margin, 24,4 x 32,5 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Literature:
The drawing is published in: Ulrike Krau-Müller, Franz Ignaz Flurer (1688-1742), Doctoral thesis Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, 1981, Cat. E 25. p. 98, p. 172 ff.

The present chalk drawing for a ceiling fresco shows Hercules amidst a group of Gods. He is about to strike with his club the Nemean lion. Various figures of gods such as Mercury and Minerva and some others, whose attributes are not identifiable are arranged around him in an oval. Some of the depicted figures in the present drawing can be recognized in Flurer’s frescoes Windisch-Feistritz und Rann. The man in the lower part of the chalk sketch, for example, is a mirror-inverted copy of the seated figure in the scene with the unicorn in the staircase of Windisch-Feistritz, whereas Mercury is reminiscent of the man with the wine glass in the second ceiling scene. The figure of Hercules, in turn, can be found in an even more foreshortened form in the staircase of Rann (comp. Krau-Müller 1981, p. 173). It is difficult to date the present design, due to the lack of the coat-of-arms or an indication on the sheet’s reverse; judging from the shape of the drawn frame, however, it may be a sketch for the ceiling fresco of a pavilion or of a staircase, which was to be surrounded by a painted or a stuccoed frame. The use of a frame, the omission of the illusionary architecture in the area of the ceiling fresco and the avoidance of a strong view from below or oblique view of the scene can also be found in Flurer’s frescoes in Brunnsee and Tobelbad from 1732 and 1733, so that it is likely, that also the present design was executed at that time.