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Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla
Hercules wrenching apart the mountains at the edge of the world to open the Strait of Gibraltar — myth attached to a real geography.
No single real-world viewpoint
A mythological scene from the Labours of Hercules; the Pillars of Hercules are the mythic geography, not a depicted landscape.
Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla — at a glance
- Artist
- Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664)
- Year
- 1634
- Movement
- Spanish Baroque
- Place
- The Strait of Gibraltar — the ‘Pillars of Hercules’ (Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa)
- Viewpoint
- A mythical event fastened to a real, unchanged geography — the strait and its flanking mountains
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 136 × 167 cm
- Now at
- Museo del Prado, Madrid
Overview
This is one of a set of ten paintings of the Labours and deeds of Hercules that Francisco de Zurbarán painted in 1634 for the throne room (Hall of Realms) of the new Buen Retiro palace in Madrid, where Hercules served as a mythical ancestor of the Spanish Habsburgs. It shows the muscular hero straining to prise apart two mountains, opening a channel between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. It is oil on canvas, about 136 by 167 cm, and it hangs in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Where was Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla painted?
Scholarship In the myth, Hercules split a single mountain to create the Strait of Gibraltar; the two resulting heights — Calpe and Abyla (Abylla) — are the ancient ‘Pillars of Hercules’, identified with the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side and Jebel Musa (or Monte Hacho, at Ceuta) on the African side. Those are real, unchanged features marking the entrance to the Mediterranean. The event is myth, but it is fastened to a specific, still-visible piece of the world's geography — the strait itself and its flanking mountains.
What is in the painting?
Hercules, nearly nude and enormously muscled, braces between two dark masses of rock, one hand and shoulder against each, heaving them apart; his club and lion-skin lie beside him. Between the rocks, a gleam of water — the opening strait — and a distant sky. The ground is bare and rocky; the light is dramatic, modelling the strained body against deep shadow.
Look closely
The straining hero
Hercules braces one shoulder against each rock mass and heaves them apart.
The opening strait
A gleam of water shows between the rocks — the channel between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
The club and lion-skin
Hercules's attributes lie on the bare ground beside him.
The theatrical light
The sculptural body is lit hard against a near-black ground, legible from below.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A single straining nude figure wedged between two rock masses, lit theatrically against darkness.
Scholarship Zurbarán isolates the hero against a near-black ground and models his effort with strong chiaroscuro, the sculptural body caught mid-strain. The Hall of Realms set was designed to be seen high on the wall, so the figure is monumental and legible from below.
Meaning and interpretation
Interpretations differ. What the artist documented, what museums and scholars propose, and later or speculative theories are marked and kept separate.
A royal ancestor
The Spanish Habsburgs claimed descent from Hercules, and the ‘Non plus ultra / Plus ultra’ motto of Charles V referred to the Pillars of Hercules and Spain's reach beyond them into the New World. The series in the throne room presented the dynasty's power through the hero's labours.
History & provenance
The Hercules series was made for the Buen Retiro and passed with the royal collection to the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Sources
- Museo del Prado, Madrid — collection entry for Francisco de Zurbarán, ‘Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abyla’ (1634)
- Prado literature on the Hall of Realms of the Buen Retiro
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