Description
Book SynopsisThe Exemplary Hercules explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles – the Roman Hercules – in European culture from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and beyond. Each chapter considers a particular work or theme in detail, raising questions about the hero’s role as model of the princely ruler, and examining how the worthiness of this exemplary type came, in time, to be subverted. The volume is one of four to be published in the Metaforms series examining the extraordinarily persistent figuring of Herakles-Hercules in western culture up to the present day, drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to offer a unique insight into the hero’s perennial, but changingly problematic, appeal.
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: The Transmission of a Classical Tradition in Theory and Practice Valerie Mainz and Emma Stafford Part 1 Applying the Model of the Princely Ruler 1 The Choice-Making Hercules as an Exemplary Model for Alessandro and Federico Gonzaga and the Fifteenth-Century Latin Translation of Prodikos’ Tale of Herakles by Sassolo da Prato Ioannis Deligiannis 2 Macte animis, Caesar, nostros imitare labores: Hercules and the Holy Roman Empire Paul Gwynne 3 Hercules in the Art of Flemish Tapestry (1450–1556) Anne-Sophie Laruelle 4 Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine and Hercules: A Political Emblem between Tradition and Innovation Annie Verbanck-Piérard 5 Monstrorum domitori: Emblematic and Allegorical Representations of the Herculean task Accomplished by José I, King of Portugal (1714–77) Filipa Medeiros Araújo Part 2 Exploiting the Model 6 What Identity for Hercules Gaditanus? The Role of the Gaditanian Hercules in the Invention of National History in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain Pamina Fernández Camacho 7 Monstrous Masculinity? Hendrick Goltzius’ Engraving of The Great Hercules 1589 Joanna Woodall 8 Literary Hard Labour: Lyric and Autobiography in Joachim du Bellay Marc Bizer 9 Voltaire’s Hercules Russell Goulbourne Part 3 Challenging the Model in the Later Eighteenth Century 10 Hercules the Younger: Heroic Allusions in Late Eighteenth Century British Political Cartoons Alexandra Eppinger 11 Hercules, His Club and the French Revolution Valerie Mainz 12 New Representations of Hercules’ Madness in Modernity: The Depiction of Hercules and Lichas Manuel Caballero González 13 How Hercules Lost His Poise: Reason, Youth and Fellowship in the Heroic Neoclassical Body Tomas Macsotay Index
