The Apotheosis of Hercules

Ceiling of the Great Hall

Louis Chéron c. 1705-7

oil on plaster, 7.53 x 15.44 m

Hercules is presented to Hebe by the Three Graces in the presence of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune and Pluto, Mercury, Fame, Bacchus, Venus and Mars. prosperine scatters flowers above. Hercules has alighted from his borrowed chariot, whilst Appollo, representing Day, in his Quadriga, has chased away his sister Diana in her horse-drawn chariot. She is preceded by Hesperus, the Evening Star, and Nyx, the Night, with dark wings outspread. To one side the kingdom of sleep is represented by Hyphos, Morpheus and the somnolent Lethe (Ovid, Metamorphoses, book xi, lines 589-632). Opposite, sits Luna with her own entourage. Unfortunately much of the effect is lost by the poor state of the ceiling at present.

The Executors' Accounts reveal that scaffolding was put up in the Great Hall in June 1705 and again in May and June 1706. Chéron was working at Boughton from March to May 1707 and it is therefore likely that the promissory note from Ralph Montagu for £115 which is dated August 1707, refers to this - apparently his last recorded commission for Montagu.

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