Hercules
1496
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer spent his life in Nuremberg, a busy German city where artists traded prints like currency.
See the richer artist page1496
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Hercules is a 1496 by Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A muscular man in a loincloth stands over two small, limp bodies. His club is raised, but his face looks confused, almost scared. This isn’t the usual Hercules—strong and sure. Dürer painted him mid-rage, right before he realizes what he’s done. The scene comes from an old Roman play most people have never heard of. Even the title, *Ercules*, is Dürer’s own mix of Latin and German. If you like how the body looks almost alive, check out the technique called *chiaroscuro*.
Even though Dürer entitled this work Ercules, the narrative of the representation remains highly debated. The most recent interpretation suggests that Dürer adapted the scene from an obscure Roman tragedy, one he may have learned through his humanist friends. The story describes how prior to Hercules’ first heroic labor, the goddess Juno incited within him a monstrous rage. This resulted in the killing of a tyrant, seen under Hercules’ left foot, and the murder of his own family, represented here by his frightened wife Megara. A maniacal old woman-a Fury, goddess of vengeance and the…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Albrecht Dürer spent his life in Nuremberg, a busy German city where artists traded prints like currency.
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