DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52770#0057
engraving (Diirer Society, I, where the whole group is reproduced). The naked man
on the right, with the exception of his head and right hand, is taken from Diirer’s
drawing of 1495 after Pollaiuolo (L.347) in the Bonnat collection.
Diirer, in the Journal of his visit to the Netherlands, names this engraving “ Her-
cules.” The context shows clearly that a large engraving is intended, not a woodcut,
and no other engraving exists to which this designation can apply. There is some
difficulty, however, as with the woodcut, B.127, in explaining the subject illustrated.
The commentators have usually supposed that the story of Nessus and Deianira
is intended, but the difficulty of explaining such a treatment of the subject is insuper-
able. Oskar Lenz has recently (Munchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 1924,
N.F. i, 98ft.) made out a fairly good case for the hypothesis that the subject repre-
sented is the punishment by Hercules of the Centaur Eurytion for the attempted rape
of Hippodamia, the bride of Pirithous. The hero who thwarted this attempt,
according to ancient mythology, was not Hercules but Theseus. The story was
related, however, by Boccaccio in his ‘ Genealogire Deorum,’ a work repeatedly
printed and widely read by the humanists, among the thirty-one exploits of Hercules,
and is to be found among the graphic representations of those exploits by a French
woodcutter of the Renaissance, by Aldegrever and by Frans Floris (engraved by
C. Cort) accompanied in every case by contemporary verses giving this explanation
of the subject. That Diirer does not represent the incident in the same manner is
not surprising. His is an isolated and much earlier engraving ; an engraving,
moreover, in which much has been taken over, with little alteration, from earlier
works of art which lay before Diirer when he designed his plate. (See H. Wolfflin,
‘ Die Kunst A.D.’s,’Munich, 1919, p. 103.) On this interpretation the satyr would
be Eurytion—it is notorious that centaurs were frequently confused with satyrs by
German artists of the Renaissance—the nude woman Hippodamia, the man with
an uprooted trunk in his hand Hercules, and the woman with a cudgel one of the
Lapiths. The child with a bird, taken over bodily from the Italian engraving of
a different subject, has nothing to do with the story.
In spite of all difficulties of exegesis, the title ‘ Hercules ’ must be maintained in
preference to any of the modern interpretations which have been suggested, such as
' Jealousy,’ ‘ the Cuckold ’ (‘ Hahnrei,’ suggested by the cock on the man’s head),
or ‘ Jupiter and Antiope.’ Wblfflin sees in the composition a struggle between
chastity and unchastity, adding that the clothed woman is Diana. Diirer’s main
interest in making the engraving was probably not so much the myth which provided
excuse for it, as the opportunity that it afforded of studying the nude and ' the
antique ’ as seen through the medium of Italian art.
9
on the right, with the exception of his head and right hand, is taken from Diirer’s
drawing of 1495 after Pollaiuolo (L.347) in the Bonnat collection.
Diirer, in the Journal of his visit to the Netherlands, names this engraving “ Her-
cules.” The context shows clearly that a large engraving is intended, not a woodcut,
and no other engraving exists to which this designation can apply. There is some
difficulty, however, as with the woodcut, B.127, in explaining the subject illustrated.
The commentators have usually supposed that the story of Nessus and Deianira
is intended, but the difficulty of explaining such a treatment of the subject is insuper-
able. Oskar Lenz has recently (Munchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 1924,
N.F. i, 98ft.) made out a fairly good case for the hypothesis that the subject repre-
sented is the punishment by Hercules of the Centaur Eurytion for the attempted rape
of Hippodamia, the bride of Pirithous. The hero who thwarted this attempt,
according to ancient mythology, was not Hercules but Theseus. The story was
related, however, by Boccaccio in his ‘ Genealogire Deorum,’ a work repeatedly
printed and widely read by the humanists, among the thirty-one exploits of Hercules,
and is to be found among the graphic representations of those exploits by a French
woodcutter of the Renaissance, by Aldegrever and by Frans Floris (engraved by
C. Cort) accompanied in every case by contemporary verses giving this explanation
of the subject. That Diirer does not represent the incident in the same manner is
not surprising. His is an isolated and much earlier engraving ; an engraving,
moreover, in which much has been taken over, with little alteration, from earlier
works of art which lay before Diirer when he designed his plate. (See H. Wolfflin,
‘ Die Kunst A.D.’s,’Munich, 1919, p. 103.) On this interpretation the satyr would
be Eurytion—it is notorious that centaurs were frequently confused with satyrs by
German artists of the Renaissance—the nude woman Hippodamia, the man with
an uprooted trunk in his hand Hercules, and the woman with a cudgel one of the
Lapiths. The child with a bird, taken over bodily from the Italian engraving of
a different subject, has nothing to do with the story.
In spite of all difficulties of exegesis, the title ‘ Hercules ’ must be maintained in
preference to any of the modern interpretations which have been suggested, such as
' Jealousy,’ ‘ the Cuckold ’ (‘ Hahnrei,’ suggested by the cock on the man’s head),
or ‘ Jupiter and Antiope.’ Wblfflin sees in the composition a struggle between
chastity and unchastity, adding that the clothed woman is Diana. Diirer’s main
interest in making the engraving was probably not so much the myth which provided
excuse for it, as the opportunity that it afforded of studying the nude and ' the
antique ’ as seen through the medium of Italian art.
9