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"The Choice of Hercules" octagonal, from the mural series "The Building of the House of Wisdom," Charlton Yarnall House
"The Choice of Hercules" octagonal, from the mural series "The Building of the House of Wisdom," Charlton Yarnall House

"The Choice of Hercules" octagonal, from the mural series "The Building of the House of Wisdom," Charlton Yarnall House

Yarnall House, "The House of Wisdom"
,
Philadelphia, PA

Object Details

Title:
"The Choice of Hercules" octagonal, from the mural series "The Building of the House of Wisdom," Charlton Yarnall House
Date:
1910–11
Artist:
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
29 x 29 1/8 in
Classification
Murals
Credit Line:
Gift of the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, 1963
Description

In three of the six octagonal panels, Oakley depicts the story of Hercules, the archetypal hero of Western civilization, in three stages of life. In this panel, the second, he is a youth vacillating between two mistresses, modest Virtue and voluptuous Vice; he will choose the path of responsibility rather than pleasure.

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The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
Woodmere’s website infrastructure and the digitization of the Museum’s collection are made possible by the generous support of Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden.