47. Heracles and Antaeus [1925.]

In the opus of Bela Čikoš, there is a series of paintings dedicated to legends from Greek mythology. Among them are two with the scene of Hercules' battle with the monster Antaeus, the son of the goddess Gaia (earth). The legend says that the battle was difficult and long-lasting, and Hercules overcame Antaeus only when he lifted him in the air and separated him from his mother Gaia (earth) who could no longer restore his strength. Čikoš staged their fight for the first time in 1892, shortly before departing for painting perfection in Munich. He painted it in the Upper Town palace in Zagreb of the then Department of Worship and Education, today's Croatian Institute of History. It is a mural decoration executed in oil paints on plaster. It is located on the south wall of the famous Pompeian room on the first floor of the palace, where it symbolizes the ideal of humanistic education with ancient icons and forms a kind of prologue to the artistic presentation of Croatian history and culture composed of impressive painting achievements of Čikoš and other leaders of Croatian modern art who – apart from the Pompeian hall – also decorated the Golden and the Renaissance Hall of the same palace. thirty years after the mural of Hercules and Anteus battle and a massive engagement on the execution of paintings for the Golden and Renaissance Hall, which lasted for about ten years with breaks (1898 – 1909), Bela Čikoš Sesija again delved into the deeply metaphorical meaning of Hercules' victory over the "invincible" Antaeus and painted in oil on canvas a fresh, considerably more dynamic and interpretatively more modern composition of the two fighters of the ancient world. The unreal space of the battle is deepened with landscape, the color is accentuated with a flowing red cape, and the contour outline of the bodies is omitted and the whole scene is painted more freely and more directly interpreted. The oil painting "The Fight of Hercules and Antaeus" from 1925 is another proof that Čikoš's painting stake in Croatian modern art is equally pioneering and unavoidable as Bukovac's, Medovic's or Vidovic's and that - as Tonko Maroevic writes - it's exclusive to the extent he wrestled with the impossible, wanting to find a visual correlate of borderline states and an artistic sign of what lies beyond.

References

Vinko Zlamalik, Bela Čikoš Sesija – pioneer of symbolism in Croatia (monograph), JAZU and DPU , Zagreb, 1984. Tonko Maroević, Bela Csikos – retrospective (catalog), Art Pavilion, Zagreb, 2012. Lada Bošnjak , Bela Csikos Sessia - in the exhibition catalog The demon of modernity. Visionary painters at the dawn of the short century , Marsilio Editori, Venice, 2015. Petra Vugrinec , Paintings in the palace of the Department of religion and instruction - in the exhibition catalog History and art on the walls of the palace at Opatička 10 in Zagreb, Klovićevi dvori Gallery, 2020., pp. 15 -– 67

Dimensions

width 34 cm, height 49 cm

Description

oil on canvas pasted on board, signed and dated lower right, in brown, "B. Cikos - Sesia 2.1925"

Research information

The work is a study post quem made after the decorative painting that Čikoš Sesija created as a commission for the Croatian Institute of History in Opatička 10 around 1900. "Hercules and Antaeus" is one of the themes that Čikoš painted for the Pompeian room, in which he worked alongside Ivan Tišov.

Dating

1925.

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