Hercules kills the Symphalic Bird 1520

Albrecht Durer created this mythological scene of ‘Hercules Kills the Symphalic Bird’ sometime in the late 15th century using pen and ink. It is part of a larger moment in European history. The classical myths of the ancient world became newly relevant in the social and cultural lives of people in Northern Europe. This was partly thanks to the efforts of the new institutions of art. They acted as arbiters of taste, style and decorum. Artists and intellectuals looked to the past for models of heroism in the present. Durer’s Hercules embodies the renaissance ideal of a man in command of his environment, and an artist in control of his materials. Durer also made engravings and woodcuts of his work, multiplying the image and allowing it to circulate widely through society. Art history depends on careful dating and material analysis in conjunction with archival research into patronage and networks of dissemination.