The Great Hercules
Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch, 1558 - 1617
1589
Engraving on laid paper
Overall: 22 × 16 in. (55.9 × 40.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
PR.975.59
Geography
Place Made: Netherlands, Europe
Period
1400-1600
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, in plate, lower left: HGoltzius Invent. et Sculpt. A.o 1589.; lower right: CIVischer excu.; lower center: Amphitryoniade virtus terraqs marias/Quem latet. et tanti Scua nouerca mali./Ille tot expositus monstris, Hydreq, tricorpor/Geryon atqs tibi, flammiuomoqs cac./Ille his Anteum, et Superat te Acheloe bicornem;/Naiades at truncum fruge ferace beant.
Label
This monumental print features an almost comically muscled hero striding through the landscape against a background of Hercules’s famous triumphs over the fire-breathing giant Cacus and the impossibly strong Cretan Bull. The open-legged stance and large torso of the image recall the ancient statue known as the Farnese Hercules, excavated in Rome in 1546, although Goltzius amplifies Hercules’s muscles in the extreme. Ancient sculpture was widely admired in the 16th century and served as inspiration for contemporary artists. The large scale of the print, which necessitated a massive copper plate to make, is almost as impressive as its gigantic subject.
From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections
Course History
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Katie Hornstein, Jane Carroll, Winter 2013
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Katie Hornstein, Jane Carroll, Winter 2013
ARTH 46, Northern Baroque Art, Joy Kenseth, Spring 2015
ARTH 16.17, Rembrandt, Joy Kenseth, Spring 2016
CLST 04, Classical Mythology, Simone Oppen, Fall 2019
CLST 04, Classical Mythology, Simone Oppen - INDEPENDENT VIEWING, Fall 2019
ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022
ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022
GOVT 86.43/MES 12.14, Intellectual History of Racism, Michelle Clarke and Jonathan Smolin, Spring 2022
History 42.01, Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies 22.01, Gender & European Society, Patrick Meehan, Spring 2024
History 96.39, Saints and Relics, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Spring 2024
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Spring 2024
Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024
Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024
Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Tania Convertini, Spring 2024
Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Spring 2024
Exhibition History
17th and 18th Century Prints, Art 46 Northern Baroque, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 13-April 23, 1978.
An Introduction of the History of Art from the Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 12-March 15, 1992.
An Introduction to the History of Art: Works from the 15th to 18th Centuries, Art 2, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 14, 1993-January 30, 1994.
Art 1, Barrows Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 21, 1975-January 11, 1976.
Constructing Gender: Works from the Hood Museum of Art's Collection, 1500 to the Present, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, ARTH 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 28-April 22, 2012.
Cultural Exchange, the Body, and Art and Technology, Art History 2, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 25-March 9, 2003.
Flesh and Desire [curated by Art History II Professors Jane Carroll and Katie Hornstein], Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth Collection January 7-March 4, 2013.
Forms and Messages: Selections from the Hood Museum of Art Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 19-March 10, 2002.
Introduction to the History of Art: Works from the 15th to the 18th Centuries, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 24, 1994-February 5, 1995.
Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.
Making Connections at the Hood Museum of Art, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 20-April 14, 2009.
Molinari Medals & Plaquettes, Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 11-December 12, 1976.
Old Master Prints from the Dartmouth Collection, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 23-April 10, 1987.
Prints & Drawings of the Northern Renaissance, Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 21-July 11, 1976.
Reality and its Alternatives, Art History 2, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 4-March 13, 2005.
Representations of the Body in Space from the Renaissance to the Present: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Art History 2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 3-March 15, 1998.
Representing Myth: The Classical Tradition in Western Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 11-August 17, 1995.
The Nude, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 12-November 25, 1979.
The Nude, South Lobby, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 29-October 22, 1976.
The Nude: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20-June 17, 1984.
The Renaissance: Forms, Reforms, and Revolutions, Barrows-Strauss Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 9-September 3, 1982.
Publication History
Upper Valley Magazine Preview of the Arts, Upper Valley Magazine, Volume 9, Number 3, May/June 1995,Van Etten, Inc., 1995, ill. p. 66
Walter L. Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius 1558-1617, The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, New York: Abaris Books, 1977, p.498-501.
F.W.H. Holstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings Engravings, and Woodcuts, Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, ca.1450-1700, Vol. VIII: Goltzius--Heemskerck, p.32.
Treasures from the Hood Museum of Arts, Dartmouth College, New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1985, p.81.
Catalogue Raisonne
Hollstein vol. 8: 32.143
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