Erasmus+ Project "Searching for the labours of Hercules" Third transnational Meeting in Andújar Description of Hercules images in the palace´s frescoes.

1. Hercules at the viso del marqués palace
searching for the labours of hercules
2nd Short-term student exchange

2. This Renaissance palace, located in el Viso del Marqués, province of
Ciudad Real, is the best example of symbiosis between mythology and
painting in Spain.

3. • Almost 8000 square meters
of fresco paintings in its
roofs and vaults make it a
picture book of mythology.
description

4. Awards Marquess of Santa Cruz
Order of Santiago
His original idea was to build himself a home for his retirement.
• Born December 12, 1526 Granada
• Died February 9, 1588 (aged 61)Lisbon, Portugal
• Buried at Viso del Marqués
• Allegiance Spain
• Service/branch Navy
• Years of service 1544–1588
• Rank Captain General of the Sea
General Admiral
• Battles/wars
• Siege of Malta
• Battle of Muros Bay
• Battle of Lepanto
• Battle of Ponta Delgada
• Conquest of the Azores
• Drake's 1587 expedition,
(there was no direct combat)
• It belonged to Álvaro de Bazán y Guzmán

5. Don Alvaro ´s deeds were celebrated by very important writers of his age.

6. She was taken by the Naples captain-galley, called La Loba (The She-Wolf), commanded
by that lightning of war, by the father of soldiers, for that fortunate and never defeated
captain, Don Álvaro de Bazán, marquis of Santa Cruz.
In the Chapter XXXIX of Don Quixote, Cervantes says:

7. • Lope the Vega in this sonnet
makes a comparison between
Neptune, god of seas, and Don
Alvaro de Bazán.
Other important writers celebrated his deeds:

8. Another poet, Luis de Góngora, says that Don Alvaro was a human Mars

9. In both sides of the staircase, Al varo de Bazán was represented by
cyclopean statues as Neptune ( god of the sea) and as Mars ( god of war),
following the renaissance tradition of representing men as gods,
demigods or heroes of the grecolatin mythology.
D. Álvaro ´s favourite heroe was Hercules.

10. Diverse representations of Don Alvaro, in front of the Viso Palace, as
Mars in the staircase, and in Madrid.

11. First vault of the staircase: the kidnapping of Deyanira and the seven
capital sins: Anger, Covetousness, Lust, Envy, Pride, Sloth, Gluttony.
the kidnapping of Deyanira

12. Hercules fires an arrow to centaur Nesus, who tries to scape with
Deyanira, Hercules´s wife, after crossing the river. Hercules will pay
later this imprudence with his life. The moral meaning of this fable: We
should be careful about to whom we entrust our precious things.
Which is the moral meaning of this fable?

13. The vault of the first landing: the labours of Hercules
the labours of Hercules

14. • The Nemean Lion

15. c
Cerberus

16. the Lernaean Hydra

17. Hercules fighting the Centaurs

18. Antaeus

19. These labours mark the triumph of Virtue against
Evil. The four elements are represented by…
Why these labours?

20. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 115 "He [Herakles] proceeded through Libya, which was
ruled by Poseidon's son Antaios, who forced strangers to wrestle and then killed them.
When Herakles was forced, he clasped Antaios in his arms, lifted him into the air,
weakened him and killed him. For it happened that Antaios was stronger when his feet
were on the ground, which is why some said he was a son of Gea (the Earth)."
Antaeus

21. Cerberus was the twelfth and final labour that was given to Heracles by King Eurystheus.
Heracles had to capture the three-headed dog without using any weapons.He managed
to go to the Underworld and find Hades to ask for his permission to take Cerberus to the
surface. Hades agreed under the condition that Heracles should not use any weapons.
Heracles eventually managed to overpower Cerberus and brought him to Eurystheus,
successfully completing his twelve labours. Here Hercules is with his club as he would
not trust the animal at all.
Cerberus

22. The first labour of Heracles was to capture the Nemean
Lion. According to some iconographical aspects from the
Cabala, Christianism identifies the fire element with the
archangel Miguel and Saint Marcus (with the symbolic
animal of fire, the lion).
Nemean Lion

23. The Hydra, was a serpentine water monster that dwelt the swamp
near lake Lerna. Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help.
Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus cauterized the open stumps.
Seeing that Heracles was winning the struggle, Hera sent a large
crab to distract him. He crushed it under his mighty foot. The
Hydra's one immortal head was cut off with a golden sword given to
Heracles by Athena. Heracles placed the head—still alive and
writhing—under a great rock
Hydra

24. After killing his music tutor Linus with a lyre, Hercules was sent to take care of
cattle on a mountain by Amphitryon. Here, according to an allegorical parable,
"The Choice of Heracles", invented by the sophist Prodicus (ca. 400 BCE), he was
visited by two nymphs - Pleasure and Virtue - who offered him a choice between a
pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious one: he chose the latter.
Psychomachia
Ψυχομαχία
psychomachy
conflict of the soul

25. It is also one of the most common conventional themes in literature, and is
sometimes considered to be a universal part of the human condition: the inner
struggle in characters (and by extension, humans in reality) between good and
evil. Joseph Conrad defined all humans as having an "inner evil" or Heart of
Darkness in his novel of the same name.

26. Vice is represented by Venus, with her back to us, slightly dressed, offering an arrow and a
heart or an apple ( love´s symbols). Contrariwise, Minerva, warrior and virtuous goddess,
represents the virtue. According to his sight and the movement of his arm, Hercules
chooses the latter. He is represented as a warrior , in a clear reference to house´owner ,
also virtuous and warrior.

27. this painting is surrounded by four combat scenes, as examples, to make
visitors understand the difficult struggle of virtuous man to control his
passions and fight dangers.

28. Not only the staircase but also the hall highlight the owner´s virtue. The steps
would be different levels to get to the upper floor, i.e. Fame and Victory. There is a
parallelism in both branches: in our way to the top, we find two virtuous examples
from Roman history, two personifications-as Hercules, choosing the virtue, and
as Neptune, chosen by the Fortune - and two allegories (Fame and Victory).
Many other Greek gods and heroes and relevant characters in Roman History
appear in the paintings of the palace showing Don Alvaro´s love for mythology,
and the way he used it to glorify himself.
Conclusion

29. bibliography
• La mitología en los
palacios españoles,
Antonio Ramón
Navarrete Orcera,
2005, UNED
• Hercules, María
Pandiello Fernández,
universidade nova de
Lisboa, Instituto de
Estudios Medievais
Mercedes Casuso Quesada
Department of Greek