This fresco once adorned Piero della Francesca’s house in Borgo Sansepolcro. The painting was originally positioned in the upper corner of a room, with its right edge bordering a wall, which helps explain the steep perspective of the image. Hercules stands at a threshold. Beyond, we can see a ceiling with wooden beams decorated with foliage. There is no evidence that the room was decorated with other gods or heroes, as might be expected. Further, Piero della Francesco chose to portray Hercules as a youth, rather than as the bearded, muscle-bound figure familiar in ancient sculpture. Certainly the ideal nude was a central theme of the Italian Renaissance. However, it remains a mystery what this image of the young Hercules might signify in the painter’s private dwelling, although the hero was commonly associated with civic virtue and goodness. Perhaps the painting of a classical nude in unusually steep perspective was a compelling artistic challenge for Piero.

Mrs. Gardner’s attempt to acquire the fresco was also Herculean. The fresco had been detached from the wall in the 1860s and in 1903 it was sold to Gardner by the Florentine dealer Elia Volpi, with the assistance of Joseph Lindon Smith. However, the Italian government delayed the work’s export until 1908, and when it arrived in America, it was seized by customs officials for payment of duty and fines. At Fenway Court, it became the centerpiece of a new gallery of early Italian pictures where it was displayed in front of a flame-stitched embroidery.

Source: Alan Chong, "Hercules," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 53

Textiles played a crucial role in the decoration of Isabella Gardner’s Museum. Tapestries, velvets, embroideries, and laces appear in nearly every gallery--whether as wall hangings, backdrops, frames, or objects of attention in their own right. One of Gardner’s most intriguing installations is that of the fresco of Hercules by Piero della Francesca which was purchased in 1907.

The Gardner Museum first opened to the public in 1903, but in 1914, Gardner commissioned an extensive rebuilding of portions of the building. An earlier Chinese Room was reconfigured as the present-day Early Italian Room, which displays fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian paintings. Gardner placed the painting by Piero della Francesca, one of the highlights of the entire collection, over a hanging composed of green silk damask and two panels of needlepoint embroidered in a flame stitch pattern. This Renaissance-style embroidery is called Bargello, after the museum in Florence which possesses a set of chairs upholstered with this pattern.

After ninety years of exhibition, the original textile had deteriorated and needed to be stored. Led by textile conservator Tess Fredette and historic upholsterer Gisele Haven, a team embroidered new flame stitch panels by carefully following the original materials and colors. The silk thread embroidered in a mathematically precise pattern shimmers in the shifting light of the gallery.

It is typical of Isabella Gardner to create provocative installations: why was Hercules placed atop this textile? The two panels of embroidery serve to frame for the painting, and echo the blocks of color in the image. The fresco is immensely heavy, since part of the original wall was carved out when the painting was detached. The light and delicate textile seems a deliberate contrast to the solidity of Piero della Francesca’s fresco.

Although a new work, the hanging carefully duplicates Isabella Gardner’s original and restores the original ensemble. In the recently restored setting of the Early Italian Room, Piero della Francesca’s painting commands renewed attention.

Purchased in 1903 from the Florentine dealer Elia Volpi, through Joseph Lindon Smith.