Hercules, from a suite of ornament designs with grotesques, allegories and deities

Engraving, part of a series of six oval plates with ornament designs executed on black grounds with grotesque motifs, allegories, and divinities, designed by Étienne Delaune before 1573 (possibly during the 1550s). This print represents Hercules, in the center of the composition, dressed in his lion skin and holding the world on his head. The different elements around him present him as an example of virtue: the globe he carries is an attribute of philosophy; at her feet, on the left, his mase represents virtue, and on the right, a bow symbolizes love and Venus. These attributes seem to be presenting Hercules as a "Vitiorum domitur," a victor over the vices. Under him, on either side, are two prisoners (a man, on the left, and a woman), reinforcing the idea of the victory of Hercules over the vices. On the upper part of the print are two oil lamps with scrolls of smoke, likely symbolizing the rejection of ignorance by virtue, which lights the obscurity of the previously-extinct lamps (as in the previous print of the series). Hercules is placed in a space strictly delimited by scrolling motifs, separating him from the lamps and the prisoners, but linking him to the dogs standing on either side of him, linking him with ideas of friendship, love, fidelity and vigilance, of which dogs are attributes.