Anonym (spanisch, 18. Jh.)
Herkules erschlägt im Wahn seine Frau Megara (?), 18. Jahrhundert
In terms of composition, this drawing would at first glance appear to represent Cain killing Abel (from the fourth chapter of Genesis), an attack often pictured as being carried out with the jawbone of an ass, though the Bible does not identify the weapon. Samson slew a thousand Philistines with just such a jawbone (Judges 15:15). Either way, the man in the Hamburg drawing appears to be somewhat older, and his victim has obvious female features: the very long hair, the breast, and an altogether more womanly anatomy. Most likely the scene can be taken to be a depiction of the maddened Hercules who, after killing his children, also attacked his wife, Megara, according to Euripedes's drama Heracles.
The drawing, included in the Spanish collection on the basis of its provenance, eludes virtually every possible attribution; it can be associated with works by Spanish artists only with difficulty. Francisco de Zurbarán painted a series of the Labors of Hercules for the Salón de Reinos at the Palacio de Buen Retiro in Madrid, where they were hung as sopraportas.[1] In concept and format (a squat horizontal), the author of the Hamburg sheet could have had those paintings in mind. In his stature, the Hercules resembles Zurbarán's.
The drawing technique, with its combination of richly varied and sharp-lined hatchings and separately inserted dots recalls the “vocabulary” of an etcher.[2]
Along with the woman's unfinished right hand and the man's uncommon nudity, the seemingly inverted chiaroscuro of the woman's profile is striking, suggesting an early date for this drawing.
Jens Hoffmann-Samland
1. In this respect, see Brown and Elliott 1980, among others
2. See, for example, José García Hidalgo (1646-1719), Cain and Abel, etching, 1693, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Inv. 12821, in which Abel is clearly pictured as a grown man.