Hercules and the Hind, from The Labors of Hercules
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 1/4 × 2 11/16 in. (10.8 × 6.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Felix M. Warburg and his family, 1941
Accession Number
41.1.123
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of Renaissance printmaking with *Hercules and the Hind, from Labors of Hercules*1550), a masterful engraving by Heinrich Aldrever, a leading German artist of the Northern Renaissance. Aldegrever, one of the "Little Masters celebrated for their intricate small-scale works, captures the mythological hero Hercules in his third labor: pursuing the sacred Ceryneian Hind, a swift golden deer belonging to the goddess Artemis. This scene reflects the era's fascination with classical myths, popularized through series like this one, which dramatized Hercules' superhuman feats as symb...
About the Artist
Heinrich Aldegrever · 1502–1561
Heinrich Aldegrever, born in 1502 in Paderborn, Westphalia, to parents Herman and Katherine Trippenmeker—a family of clog-makers known by the dialect name Trippenmecker—emerged as a multifaceted artist in the German Renaissance. His early training remains undocumented, though he likely apprenticed in a Soest goldsmith's workshop after relocating there around 1525, where he joined the painters' gui...