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Hercules and Albrecht Dürer’s Das Meerwunder in a Chantbook from Renaissance Spain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Lorenzo Candelaria
Lorenzo Candelaria*
Affiliation:
University Of Texas , Austin
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Abstract

This article centers on two images from the life of Hercules and a border painting modeled after Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Das Meerwunder (ca. 1498) in a Kyriale produced ca. 1500 for a Dominican convent in Toledo, Spain. It discusses the cultural significance of Hercules in Spain, and Toledo in particular, then presents a contextually sensitive reading of the image derived from Dürer’s enigmatic engraving, whose subject has yet to be identified. The image in the Kyriale appears to represent Hercules’ once-famous rescue of the Trojan princess Hesione from a sea monster.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , Spring 2005 , pp. 1 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

*

A preliminary version of this article was read at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America in 2002. Research in Spain was made possible through the generosity of the Fulbright Program, the Social Science Research Council, and the University of Texas at Austin. I am especially grateful to Professor Craig Wright at Yale University for his comments on an earlier draft of this article and, as always, to Monique and Geneva for their patience and support. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are my own.

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