Hercules

Albrecht  Dürer referred to this engraving as Hercules in the diary of his visit to the Netherlands in 1520-21. But the moment depicted has yet to be identified precisely. Sometimes referred to as The effects of jealousy, sometimes as Hercules at the crossroads or Combat of Virtue and Vice in the presence of Hercules, its subject is certainly inspired by classical art and literature. Dürer made the first of two journeys to Italy in 1494, where he encountered the remains of antiquity first hand. More importantly, he saw and studied the engravings of Italian Renaissance artists such as Andrea Mantegna and Antonio del Pollaiuolo. The reclining female figure of Vice is based on one of the sirens in Mantegna's Battle of the sea goods, and the nude figure of Hercules is inspired by Pollaiuolo's Battle of the nudes.

In this engraving, Dürer demonstrates what he learnt from the study of Italian art - the idealised nude, the pyramidal composition and the complex allegorical subject. He has merged these new lessons with his own northern European pictorial traditions. He places his figures convincingly within a highly developed landscape setting where the trees and grasses are described with minute precision. His early training as a goldsmith in his native Nuremberg made him especially sensitive to the subtleties of the engraving medium. He employs an astonishing variety of lines, dots and dashes to convey the forms, thereby raising the art of engraving to a level of sophistication rarely attempted in Italy.

Te Papa's impression of this engraving is a good one, and it was probably printed in the 1520s. In the leaves of the tree on the far right there are still some signs of ink that was trapped in the metal filaments, known as the burr, dislodged by the engraver's chisel or burin. In the finest early impressions, the use of the burr creates pronounced contrasts between lights and darks, giving the effect of relief sculpture. Repeated printing of the plate wears down the burr so that it becomes less and less visible.

Te Papa's Dürer collection includes other significant engravings such as The prodigal son amid the swine, The great Fortune, The large horse and the famous Melencolia I.

Source: David Maskill, 'Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528 Germany', in Art at Te Papa, edited by William McAloon (Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2009), p. 27.

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   November 2016