Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna

Copy, on the same verso, from a niello by Peregrino da Cesena that belonged to the Durazzo collection, now in Paris, Louvre, Rothschild collection.

The nielli of the Durazzo collection were reproduced in prints by owner’s will, between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, in Venice - as also specified by Malaspina in his catalog of 1824 - constituting a series that was circulated and collected by the amateurs.

Bartsch describes these niello prints in his volume published in 1811, a date that therefore constitutes the terminus ante quem for the execution.