Hercules' Dog Discovers Purple Dye

Hercules' Dog Discovers Purple Dye is a c.1636 oil painting by Peter Paul Rubens. It is one of four works on Herculean subjects in the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne.

It shows a story from the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux, a 2nd-century Graeco-Roman sophist, in which Hercules' dog bit a sea snail whilst walking on the beach and dyed his mouth purple. A similar picture of the subject by Theodoor van Thulden is in the Prado Museum.

Bibliography

• Palais des Beux-Arts de Lille(2004) RUBENS.

Peter Paul Rubens
Paintings and drawings	The Deposition (1602) Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603) Portrait of a Young Woman (1603) Hercules and Omphale (1603) Heraclitus and Democritus (1603) Virgin and Child (c. 1604) The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1604/1605) The Circumcision (1605) Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria (1606) Portrait of a Noblewoman with a Dwarf (1606) Portrait of Giovanni Carlo Doria on Horseback (1606) Madonna della Vallicella (1606–1608) Susanna and the Elders (1607) Adoration of the Magi (Prado) (1609; 1628–29) Samson and Delilah (1609-1610) Honeysuckle Bower (1609-1610) Raising of the Cross (1610-1611) Conversion of Saint Paul (1610-1612) Massacre of the Innocents (c. 1611) Prometheus Bound (1611-1612) The Four Philosophers (1611-1612) Antwerp Resurrection (1611-1612) Descent from the Cross (1612–1614) Saint Teresa of Ávila's Vision of the Holy Spirit (1612-1614) The Defeat of Sennacherib (1612-1614) The Four Continents (1610s) Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter (1612–1614) Portrait of a Commander (1613) The Crowning of the Virtuous Hero (1613-1614) The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (1613-1615) The Death of Adonis (1614) St Sebastian (c. 1614) Madonna della Cesta (1615) Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno, Who He Wished to Seduce (1615) Daniel in the Lions' Den (1615) The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt (1615-1616) The Tiger Hunt (1615-1616) Florence Resurrection (1616) The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents (1616) Erichthonius Discovered by the Daughters of Cecrops (c. 1616) The Wolf and Fox Hunt (c. 1616) The Lion and Leopard Hunt (c. 1616) Romulus and Remus (1615-1616) Adoration of the Magi (Cambridge) (1616-1617) Adoration of the Magi (Lyon) (1617-1618) Descent from the Cross (1616-1617) The Meeting Between Abraham and Melchizedek (1616-1617) Christ and the Penitent Sinners (1617) Mars and Rhea Silvia (1617) The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (1617) A Bearded Man (c. 1617-18) The Five Senses (1617-18) Two Satyrs (1618) Medusa (1618) The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus (c. 1618) The Union of Earth and Water (c. 1618) Tigress with Her Cubs (1618) Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee (1618-20) St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (1619-20) Conversion of Saint Paul (1620s) The Fall of the Damned (ca. 1620) Landscape with Philemon and Baucis (ca. 1620) Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1620) Perseus Freeing Andromeda (1620) The Rape of Orithyia by Boreas (1620) Christ on the Cross (1620) The Three Graces (1620-1623) Isabella Brant (c. 1621) The Lion Hunt (1621) Marie de' Medici cycle (1621–1630) Portrait of Susanna Lunden (1622) Perseus and Andromeda (c. 1622) The History of Constantine (1622-1625) The Conversion of Saint Bavo (1623-1624) Diana and Her Nymphs Leaving for the Hunt (1623-1624) Adoration of the Magi (Antwerp) (1624) The Reconciliation of Esau and Jacob (1624) Christ Appointing Saint Roch as Patron Saint of Plague Victims (1623-1626) Portrait of Infante Isabella Clara Eugenia (1625) The Triumph of the Church (1635) Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1625-1626) Angelica and the Hermit (c. 1626-1628) The Annunciation (1627-1628) The Fall of Man (1628–1629) The Rape of Europa (1628-1629) Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars (1629-1630) The Ildefonso Altarpiece (1630-1631) Odysseus on the Island of the Phaecians (1630-1635) The Finding of Erichthonius (1632-1634) The Garden of Love (c. 1633) The Rape of the Sabine Women (1634-1636) The Feast of Venus (c. 1635) The Dance of the Villagers (1635) Helena Fourment with Her Son Frans (1635) The Village Fête (1635-1638) Hercules' Dog Discovers Purple Dye (c. 1636) Helena Fourment with Children (1636) Saturn (1636) The Rainbow Landscape (1636) Het Pelsken (1636-1638) The Origin of the Milky Way (c. 1637) Consequences of War (c. 1638) Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides / Deianira Listens to Fame (1638) The Three Graces (1636-1638) The Rape of Ganymede (1636-1638) Diana and Callisto (1637-1638) Helena Fourment with a Carriage (1638) The Peasants Returning From The Fields (1640) Judgment of Paris (various)
Teachers	Tobias Verhaecht Adam van Noort Otto van Veen
Pupils and collaborators	Anthony van Dyck Frans Snyders Jan Brueghel the Elder Jacob Jordaens
Other	Flemish Baroque painting Antwerp School (painting) Rubenesque Poussinists and Rubenists Dutch Golden Age painting
Related	Jan Rubens (father) Maria Pypelinckx (mother) Isabella Brant (first wife) Helena Fourment (second wife) Julius Held Michael Jaffé Palazzi di Genova (book by Rubens, 1622) Rubens (1977 film)
Public collections	Rubenshuis Elewijt Castle Plantin Press