• Additional view of object
Jun 5, 2006

Hercules at the Crossroad

Hercules at the Crossroad

c. 1498

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)

Germany, late 15th-early 16th century

Engraving

Image: 32.4 x 22.2 cm (12 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.); Sheet: 32.4 x 22.2 cm (12 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1961.170

Catalogue raisonné: Meder 63 ii/ii

State: II/II

Location

101A Prints & Drawings

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Did you know?

The rooster on the helmet of Hercules in this image may symbolize the hero's valor.

Description

In his journal, Albrecht Dürer referred to this
enigmatic engraving as “the Hercules,” but
the image is not a typical representation of
the mythological hero’s 12 labors. The subject
derives from a Greek parable, where Hercules
decides between a life of pleasure or one of
virtue. The moral dispute plays out here as a
battle between two personifications, Virtue,
wielding a club, and Pleasure, lying with a
satyr. Hercules’s crossroad is a copse of trees
between two paths: the ascent to civilization
at left (pleasure?), or the winding river to the
wilderness at right (virtue?).

See also
Collection: 
PR - Engraving
Department: 
Prints
Type of artwork: 
Print
Medium: 
Engraving
Credit line: 
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

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