Characters from classical mythology were popular subjects for Renaissance prints. In this example, Jacob Bos illustrates a statue of Hercules excavated in 1546 from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and placed in the private collection of Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III, r. 1534–49), an enthusiastic collector of antiquities whose holdings formed one of the best collections ever assembled by a private individual. Bos's engraving was one of many that helped increase the fame of the statue, a third-century Roman copy of a Greek original by Lysippus or one of his pupils. The engraving was available for inclusion in the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, a kind of open-ended collector's album comprised of prints available from the Roman shop of French engraver Antonio Lafréri. After 1549, Bos worked for Lafréri and for other publishers in Rome, where he probably learned engraving from a follower of Marcantonio Raimondi. Bos depicts the statue in a simple niche that frames the figure without detracting attention from it. Hercules's weary pose likely results from the successful completion of his Labors; a print by Goltzius (17.37.59) shows the statue from the rear, revealing the apples of the Hesperides in the hero's right hand.

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