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Details
- Other Titles
- (Hercules choosing between Virtue and Vice)
(The Hercules)
(Hercules, or the Effects of Jealousy) - Alternative title
- Die Eifersucht
- Date
- circa 1498
- Media category
- Materials used
- engraving
- Edition
- ii of 2 states
- Dimensions
- 31.8 x 22.0 cm image; 32.2 x 22.5 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Signed lower c., [incised plate] "AD [artist's monogram]". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1938
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 8503
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Albrecht Dürer
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
The subject relates to a passage by the Greek writer Xenophon about the youthful Hercules deciding between Virtue and Pleasure. Dürer shows Pleasure lying naked with a satyr, about to be beaten by her opponent. Hercules wields a tree-trunk, ready to enter the fight. Dürer was inspired by Italian art for his representation of classical nudes in the landscape. The reclining figure is derived from an engraving by Mantegna while the muscular figure of Hercules is borrowed from a print by Antonio del Pollaiuolo that Dürer probably saw during his first trip to Italy in 1494–95.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
Piety and Paganism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 Jul 1991–29 Sep 1991
German Old Master Prints, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 03 Mar 1998–16 Jun 1998
Old Europe: Prints & drawings from the collection 1500-1800, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 03 Jun 2006–06 Aug 2006
European prints and drawings 1500-1900, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Aug 2014–02 Nov 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
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Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Sydney, 1972, p 7, illus p 7. As 'Combat of Virtue and Pleasure in the presence of Hercules'.
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Nicholas Draffin, Piety and Paganism, Sydney, 1991, pp 4, 13.
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