U.S. Copyright Law (title 17 of U.S. code) governs the reproduction and redistribution of copyrighted material. Downloading this document for the purpose of redistribution is prohibited. Yale University Rubens' "Hero and Leander" and Its Poetic Progeny Author(s): Amy Golahny Source: Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, (1990), pp. 20-37 Published by: Yale University, acting through the Yale University Art Gallery Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40514451 . Accessed: 12/06/2013 12:48 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Yale University and Yale University Art Gallery are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.132.173.151 on Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:48:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fig. i PeterPaul Rubens,Hero and Leander,ca. 1602-05. Oil on canvas,96 x 138cm. Yale UniversityArt Gallery.Gift of SusanMorse Hilles. 1962.25 2O This content downloaded from 130.132.173.151 on Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:48:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Rubens'Hero and Leanderand itsPoetic Progeny AMY GOLAHNY Per Ludovico Borgo,professore ottimo oeuvre.Marino, Vondel, and Vosevidently knewthe painting firsthand, and theirelegies offerrich appreciations of the image. By Whilein Italyfrom 1600 to 1608,Peter Paul examiningfirst Rubens' Hero and Leander Rubens(1577-1640) painted the dead Lean- and itssources in literatureand art,and then derlamented by nereids as Hero throwsher- thepoets' responses to theimage, we gain selfinto the sea (Fig.1).1 Two classicaltexts, unusualinsight into the Baroque dialogue byOvid andMusaeus, informed his render- betweenthe visual and theliterary arts. ingof this dramatic, final episode of an Two ancientpoems concern the story of ancientand tragicamorous union. In his theill-fated lovers, Hero and Leander.Ovid's descriptionof figures and naturalphenom- Heroides(ist century B.c.) includestwo let- ena,Rubens was furthermore inspired by sev- ters,Epistles 18 and 19,one fromLeander and eralItalian Renaissance images. The painting a responsefrom Hero.3 Each letterexpounds maybe closelylinked to theinventions and uponthe lovers' unhappy situation, and stylesof Tuscan and Venetian heritages, Hero'slament especially presents an emo- diverseyet equally attractive to theyoung tionaloutpouring akin to thenereids' grief in artist. Rubens'painting. Ovid makesno mentionof Heroand Leanderachieved considerable theimpending deaths of the lovers. Musaeus' famein theseventeenth century. The original Heroand Leander(5th century a.D.) elabo- painting,now at theYale University Art ratesupon the Ovidian letters and provides Gallery,- or a variant-belonged to several thefullest account of the episode. In 343 prominentcollectors of Baroque Europe: the lines,the poet tells how Leander met Hero at Duke ofBuckingham, Rembrandt, Pieter thespring festival of Adonis and immediately Six,and SirPeter Lely.2 And uniquelyin fellin lovewith her. Prohibited from meeting Rubens'oeuvre, it was the subject of poems openly,because of unexplained family cir- bythree seventeenth-century poets: cumstancesand Hero'srole as a virginpriest- GiambattistaMarino (1569-1625), Joost essof Aphrodite, Leander and Herowere vanden Vondel (1587-1679), and Jan Vos togetheronly clandestinely at night.Every (1615/20-1667).The worksof Rubens, a evening,guided by a lampHero litin her mostliterate painter, may have naturally tower,Leander swam from his native city of appealedto poets,who recognized kindred Abydosto hisbeloved's dwelling at Sestos, fontsof inspiration in theFlemish painters acrossthe Hellespont at thenarrowest point 21 This content downloaded from 130.132.173.151 on Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:48:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ofthe Dardanelles. One stormyautumn "sweepingheadlong" from her tower. It is night,Hero's lamp blew out, and Leander alsopossible that Rubens may have been losthis way and drowned.When his body promptedby the early woodcut illustrations washedupon the shore the next morning, to representthis most dramatic and climactic Heroplunged from her tower into the sea episodeof the tale.7 to join Leanderin death. YetRubens enhanced the dramatic con- As Musaeus'Greek poem was believed - tentof his individual literary and pictorial - albeitwrongly- in theRenaissance to date sources achievinga markedsynthesis of ac- - fromthe 5th century b.c., Rubens would tionand expressivenessby juxtaposing the haveregarded it as theauthoritative, earlier twodeaths and bygiving such prominence to sourcefor the narrative. Printed by Aldus thegrieving nereids. Within the narrative of Manutiusin Greek,ca. 1494,and in both Hero and Leander,these nereids are Rubens' Greekand Latinin 1497,Musaeus' poem innovation:they do notoccur in anyof the wasfrequently republished and translated ancientor Renaissanceaccounts of the tale, throughoutthe sixteenth century.4 Of the althoughHero's lament in theOvidian epis- ancientand Renaissancerenditions of the tleparallels their plain tiveness in Rubens' lovers'tale, including Ovid's epistles and the depiction.One possiblesource for his inclu- elaborate1598 version by Christopher Mar- sionof the sea nymphsis theGreek poet loweand GeorgeChapman, Musaeus' poem Bion'sLament for Adonis, a second-century mostexplicitly and conciselydescribes Hero's B.c. textwhich is amongthe literary sources suicide.The closinglines of the epyllion - an forRubens' later composition, Venus and epiclove poem - read: NymphsWeeping over the Dead Adonis,ca. In Bion's Venusand the Andwhen at the thetower 1614.8 idyll, nymphs footof bewailAdonis' deathand loosean Shesaw her husband, a dead untimely bodyflayed by thatanimates all nature-moun- thetide-rocksy anguish tains,trees, rivers, and flowers.Like Leander, herembroidered robe Tearingaway from Adoniswas a virile whosuffered a vio- roundher breasts. figure lentdeath and leftbehind a disconsolate And downshe sweepingheadlong fellfrom lover.And as Leanderhad firstmet Hero at the tower; lofty thefestival of Adonis, there is a con- AndHero in deathbeside her dead logical lay nectionbetween the two narratives as well. husband. This broadparallel in circumstancesmay Andthey had joy of each other even in their haveencouraged Rubens to appropriate lastperishing? Bion'sscenario of mourning nymphs for his Withthe 1497 Aldine edition of Musaeus' renditionof Leander's death. poem,the illustrated tradition of Hero's sui- Heroand Leanderpresents a unity of cidewas established. Two anonymouswood- figuresand naturalelements. A rhythmic cutson facingpages depicted Hero in her movementacross the canvas, from left to toweras sheawaited the swimming Leander, right,is createdby Rubens' placement of the and Herofalling from the tower toward nereids,who are linked by limbs or gazes, and Leander'scorpse below (Fig. 2). Theircom- byhis articulation of the waves that swell positionssurvived in numeroussixteenth- aroundthem. This is nota realisticportrayal centuryeditions of the poem, and theirinflu- offigures in water,but a depictionof the sea enceis evenapparent in someearly woodcuts as a substantialmedium able to supportand forOvid's Heroides.6 It is likelythat Musaeus' displaythe bodies carried within it. A menac- textwas crucial for Rubens' portrayal of ingforce, Rubens' sea is populatedas wellby Hero,partially clad in a billowingrobe, suchmonsters as thewhale in thelower left 22 This content downloaded from 130.132.173.151 on Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:48:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fig. 2 Heroand Leander.Woodcut, from Musaeus, Opusculum...,Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1497. By permissionof The HoughtonLibrary, Harvard University. corner.In thecenter, the water billows and parisonsof certain figures in thepainting to ebbsto providea shelterfor Leander s body figuresby Michelangelo and Tintorettohave and itsnearest nereids. Three nereids carry beenmade in previousdiscussions. The simi- thecorpse, one graspingit underthe chin, larityof the nereid at thefar left to Michelan- and twoholding onto the arms. Eleven gelos Ledaand Nighthas beennoted by otherssurround the body, each manifesting MichaelJaffé, Reinhard Liess, Justus Müller physicaland facialgrief. At thefar right, a Hofstede,and KerryDownes.9 Jaffé has also nereids footdraws our eye to Heros body, termedthe powerful body of Leander tumblingheadfirst, legs spread, toward the Michelangelesque,and it maybe notedhere shore.Two winged, weeping genii, one with thatLeander s poseis somewhatakin to that claspedhands and one holdinga lowered ofMichelangelo's drawing of Tityus. Jaffé has torch,emerge from the dark central portion furtherremarked that the sharply foreshort- ofthe sky. The dramaof the grieving nereids enedHero is reminiscentof the flying saint andgenii, the foaming waves, the sky s in Tintorettos St. Mark Rescuing a Christian stormystreaks and clouds,and Heros plunge Slave,and he hascompared the winged genii is reinforcedby violent contrasts between lit to otherforeshortened figures in Tintoretto's and shadedareas. Continuity of cause