Pictures of the Month | November 2008
Picture of the Month
November 2008
Hercules and Deianira [1517]
by Jan Gossaert (1478-1532)
This intricate and intense little panel forms the inspiration for the exhibition The Past within the Present, currently on display in the Education Gallery.
Jan Gossaert (1478-1532) called himself ‘Mabuse’, probably after his native town of Maubeuge in Hainault. He trained in the strict Netherlandish traditions of religious subjects and portraiture, in the footsteps of masters such as Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (1400-64). Following a trip to Italy in 1508-9, Gossaert became a central, prolific and innovative figure in the dissemination of the ideology of Renaissance humanism into Northern artistic practice. The former was then flourishing through the work of such figures as Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Raphael (1483-1520) in Rome and upheld the classical ideals of Antiquity, with its particular focus on the purity and beauty of the nude, as the ultimate art form.
Gossaert’s enchanting painting of 1517 is one of two surviving works that reveal the initial powerful impact of Italian ideals on his approach to his work. This panel indeed shows, on one hand, the artist’s traditional Northern training, with the acutely painstaking study of surface and form, and on the other hand, the strong influence of Italy, in the choice of a pagan theme and an obsessive interest in the convoluted and complicated representation of the human body.
The work shows the god Hercules, heroic personification of strength and masculine courage (as symbolized in his strong body and large, metal-studded club) and his wife Deianira. While the two are rarely shown together, here they reside in a classical marble niche, gazing adoringly at each other. Along the panels behind their legs are three scenes from the Twelve Labours of Hercules, while the lovers’ names are carved in the stone above their heads. At first glance, this is an image of love, purity and peace. There is, however, a much darker side to the story. The silver cloak that Deianira clasps has been given to her by an evil centaur, who has promised that if it is draped over Hercules, it will protect him and ensure his fidelity to his wife. When Hercules wears it, however, the cloak engulfs him in flames and kills him. The dark, shadowy background and the somehow awkward, tense and surely uncomfortable poses in which the figures sit, both balancing precariously on the edge of the cold marble ledge – seem to imply this imminent, cruel tragedy. As with that of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, this is a tale of deceit, seduction and jealously that ends in male downfall — a misogynistic theme that fascinated Gossaert, and which he communicates in this small but potent image with its brooding, darkly erotic atmosphere.
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