A Brussels mythological tapestry, The Labours of Hercules (3): Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds, ...

A Brussels mythological tapestry,
The Labours of Hercules (3): Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds,
probably mid-16th century, in the manner of Bernard van Orley, the sixth labour of Hercules, who is shown pointing a bow and arrow at the birds on the, ground, Brussels town mark,
12ft high x 10ft x 3ins (366 x 312cm)

Provenance: By repute, the Pallavicino Family, by descent to Marchese Serra, Palazzo Verde, Genoa;
from whom purchased by J Pierpont Morgan and gifted to Walter Hayes, Burns;
Christie's North Mymms Park, September 1979, lot 500.
After Hercules returned from his success in the Augean stables, Eurystheus devised an even more difficult task. For the sixth labour, Hercules was to drive away an enormous flock of, birds which gathered at a lake near the town of Stymphalos.

Arriving at the lake, which was deep in the woods, Hercules had no idea how to drive the huge gathering of birds away. The goddess, Athena, came to his aid, providing a pair of bronze, krotala, noise-making clappers similar to castanets. These were no ordinary noise-makers. They had been made by an immortal craftsman, Hephaistos, the god of the forge.

Climbing a nearby mountain, Hercules clashed the krotala loudly, scaring the, birds out of the trees and, as they took flight, he shot them with a bow and arrow.