The last of the twelve classic labors of hercules takes place in hell, the kingdom of darkness guarded by cancerberus, a terrifying dog with three heads that allowed entry, but not exit, to those who dared to cross the door that the monster guarded. Eurystheus commissioned hercules to go down to hell to catch the dog and bring it to his presence. The hero had to subdue the fierce guardian without attacking him, although he threatened him with the club or club in order to chain him. This is seen in this scene related to the representation of the fight with the lernaean hydra, both because of the attitude of hercules and because of the image that is offered of these fabulous animals. The story that follows this canvas is the one described, with great detail and sources, by baltasar de vitoria, in which he talks about the poplar crown as an element that served as protection for the son of jupiter and that francisco de zurbarán took care to paint surrounding the hero's head. According to vitoria, hercules arrived in hell in charon's boat, but first he cut some branches of white poplar, of which there were many on that bank, and made a garland of them, with which he surrounded his temples [. . ] for his defense [. . ]. Regarding the interpretation that can be made of the capture of cancerberus by hercules, we can allude, in addition to the well-known relationship between the strength and cunning displayed by hercules and that manifested by his descendant, the king of spain, the opinion of juan pérez de moya in his secret philosophy: cancerberus represents all the vices that hercules conquered and subdued, thereby achieving perpetual glory and fame. Considered by some scholars as one of the best paintings of the zurbaranesque group, this work shows us an excellent anatomical modeling of the hero, maintaining the same popular and strong type, the hercules hispanicus with sun-tanned hands and face and brown hair that is represented in all the canvases. For the composition, the spanish painter once again based himself on the series by cornelis cort. The disposition of the hero in this canvas is based on the print that illustrates the episode of the death of the lernaean hydra, while the conception of the dog and the environment are based on the print of the same theme, although zurbarán devised a suffocating scenario in which he cared to detail, despite the distance at which the work would be hung, the crackling of the fire, an effect that he would develop even more in the death of hercules (p1250) (text extracted from ruiz, l. In: el palacio del rey planeta. Felipe iv y el buen retiro, museo nacional del prado, 2005, p. 164). Object Type: painting. Genre: mythological painting. Date: 1634. Dimensions: 136 × 153 cm (53.5 × 60.2 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Museo del Prado. Hércules y el Cancerbero, por Zurbarán
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