Hercules Protecting the Balance Between Pleasure and Virtue is Ligare’s allusion to Dürer’s Hercules at the Crossroads (1498c.). What Dürer implies, Ligare makes emphatic. His essential change is the picnic. He shows no food; instead, Ligare places Pleasure on a blue cloth next to a basket of apples.
The scene evokes Pleasure, love in the flesh, sprawled on a cloth trying to ward off Virtue’s wrath and a heavy cudgel. As usual, Hercules’ choice is never resolved; the picnic is interrupted—and unresolved. Ligare may also suggest that choosing between Pleasure and Virtue is no picnic (perhaps an intended pun). Also, Legare has not included the figure of Pan.
The basket is filled with cherries, peaches, and grapes, often symbols of sexuality. There is no wine.
Featured Image: David Ligare. Hercules Protecting the Balance Between Pleasure and Virtue (1993). http://www.davidligare.com/
See discussion of Dürer’s Hercules at the Crossroads (1498c.)