In this canvas Hercules is busy while facing the seventh effort. He defeats a huge bull capable of breathing fire from its nostrils that was infesting the island of Crete. Thanks to his extraordinary strength, the demigod will succeed in the enterprise of taming the mythical animal.

Like the other paintings in the same series, this subject too is was created by Gregorio De Ferrari in the mature phase of his activity, started in the workshop of Domenico Fiasella, one of the most representative Genoese masters of the seventeenth century, and then enriched by the direct knowledge of Correggio's painting. Emilian suggestions in this case they were embellished with references to the manners of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione known as il Grechetto, another famous protagonist of the Genoese Baroque season.