'Hercules' and 'Orpheus': Two Mock-Heroic Designs by Dürer

I. A Hybrid between Hercules and Mercury It is one of the misfortunes of the German philosophers and artists that the heaviness of their serious productions has been more deeply appreciated than their sense of humour. Nietzsche is remembered for 'Zarathustra,' but not for 'Frdhliche Wissenschaft'; Kant for the 'Kritik der reinen Vernunft,' but hardly for the 'Triiume eines Geistersehers.' The same prejudice has distorted the reputation of Albrecht Duirer. When a design of his looks plainly funny, critics assume that he is being clumsy rather than that he is making a joke. The print reproduced on plate 39a is generally regarded as an awkward attempt by the young Diirer to adopt the grand diction of the Italian style. The chief figures are known to be imitations from Mantegna and Pollaiuolo,l and the queer effect of their juxtaposition is attributed to Diirer's lack of experience in handling this new idiom. We shall find, however, that what has been mistaken for a pedantic exercise by a provincial pupil is really the effusion of a masterly wit with a strong cosmopolitan flavour. The picture shows a pair of lovers, a nymph and a satyr, attacked by a lively young woman, while a man stands in the foreground holding up a stick. The action of this man has greatly baffled critics, for they have been unable to determine on which side he is fighting. His aggressive expression seems to imply that he supports the attack on the couple, but the position of his stick rather looks as if he were trying to avert the blow, though he stands much too far away to do so. The traditional names of the print, of which there are three-'Die Eifersucht,' 'Der Hahnrei,' and 'Hercules'-give no solution to this riddle. The name 'Eifersucht' is a pure guess, and has nothing to recommend it except the widespread belief that envy is the most plausible reason for one woman beating another. The name 'Der Hahnrei' has at least this in its favour, that it was suggested by a visible feature in the picture: the man in the foreground wears a cock on his helmet. But though this emblem certainly calls for an explanation, the one offered is again a mere guess, and is moreover quite inadequate; for it gives no reason for the parts played by the woman in the centre and by the frightened little boy on the right. The third name, 'Hercules,' would certainly never have occurred to any modern spectator, but it happens to be the one which is supported by Diirer's own testimony. In his Netherlandish diary he himself refers to this print as 'Hercules.'2 A gallant effort has therefore been made to interpret he scene as a representation of Hercules assisting Virtue in her