HeraclesDeianeira1.0013_Gossaert

HeraclesDeianeira1.0013_Gossaert

Wikipedia re: Paris (2003)
Homer Iliad 3 and passim
Apollodorus Libr. Ep.3.1-6.29

Gossaert, Jan, called Mabuse. 1517. “Hercules Dyanira,” oil on wood. University of Birmingham, Barber Institute inv. no. 46.10.

The two nude figures sit side-by-side — he with club, she erotically entwining her legs with his— upon a bench decorated with scenes from Hercules’ Labors, Antaeus, Nemean Lion, Atlas. Perhaps the suggestion is that Deineira's entanglements will be more complicating than Heracles' relatively straightforward disposal of Antaeus, even his slaying of the Nemean Lion.

The image at right is taken from Wikipedia Commons and reduced to 500 px @ 72 dpi.

Bibliography:

M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, VIII: Gossaert and van Orley, 1972, no. 50.
Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Kunst voor de Beeldenstorm, 1986, no. 1;

RA 1998, no. 282.

Spencer-Longhurst, Paul. 1999. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts: Handbook. The University of Birmingham, UK.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled forThe Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.