Hercules in gevecht met de Nemeïsche leeuw 1512 - 1560

Curator: Standing before us is Heinrich Aldegrever's print, "Hercules in combat with the Nemean Lion," dating from between 1512 and 1560. It's a rather striking scene rendered in metal engraving, held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, what strikes me is the raw physicality; the strained muscles of Hercules juxtaposed against the wild mane of the lion. You can almost feel the brute force being exerted. It makes you think of what it was like for Aldegrever to push through the copper plate with his burin...the resistance. Curator: I agree. Aldegrever truly captures the essence of struggle. Notice the composition within the circle, how the figures intertwine, echoing the tension and chaos. There is a rugged, almost theatrical backdrop, too. It’s pure Northern Renaissance in style, with its meticulous detail and penchant for historical and figurative narrative. Editor: Right, look closely and you can almost count every individual hair of the lion’s mane. You see Aldegrever was a printmaker during the Reformation...this imagery was disseminated across borders—cheap, replicable... Did this particular rendering of heroism bolster certain societal ideals around strength, dominion over the 'natural' world, even perhaps as propaganda during turbulent times? Curator: That's certainly a compelling angle. He seemed adept at translating classical narratives for his contemporary audience, no doubt. Aldegrever was also something of a rebel with a flair for ornamentation, which isn't obviously apparent in this work, though. One almost overlooks the "A" near the upper-right that's the signature. And I confess I always find myself looking past the overt action into the town depicted on the landscape! Is the town threatened? Did they request the intervention of this muscle bound savior? Editor: It's such an amazing use of the engraving process to establish that far background... I would say that seeing that the townsfolk would likely have considered themselves 'saved' by Hercules shows how such artworks legitimized nascent social hierarchies as they emerged with early Capitalism... Anyway... a pretty fierce, complicated, artifact that has staying power. Curator: Indeed. I am still taken by that primal struggle and that distant little town there needing a protector of the status quo. Editor: Seeing art from this perspective highlights, for me, that no artwork escapes from a world of objects and labor!