Hercules on the Funeral Pyre

A pupil of Jacques-Louis David, Monagny was a painter and draftsman of historical and mythological subjects who worked in Rome and Naples and exhibited in the Paris Salons between 1819 and 1824. According to the Roman poet Ovid, the demigod Hercules, having been fatally poisoned by his jealous wife Deianira, chose to be burned alive on a funeral pyre rather than endure a long and agonizing death. In the fire, only his mortal flesh was consumed by flames; his immortal body ascended to Mount Olympus, where he was welcomed by his father, Zeus.