Chapter 19 Closer Look 4: The Death of Hector

Morford 11e Chapter 19 Image 19.11

The Death of Hector

The Death of Hector, by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640); 43 3 50 in. A modello is the second stage of preparatory designs for a tapestry, following a smaller oil sketch and preceding a larger cartoon. Rubens designed a series of eight tapestries depicting The Life of Achilles, of which The Death of Hector was the seventh. Since tapestry weavers worked from the back of the web, the figures in the modello are left-handed. The scene depicts the fatal thrust of Achilles’ spear (which had been given back to Achilles by Athena after it had first missed its target) into Hector’s throat (Iliad 22.326–329). Hector, armed only with a sword (for his spear, too, had missed its mark, but there was no goddess to restore it), looks at Achilles, still able to ask for a decent burial. His request will be denied, for his body will be dragged round the walls of Troy (shown in the right background with anxious Trojans gathered before the towers of the gate and on the walls) by the horses that appear in the left background. Athena, accompanied by her owl and with a spear in her left hand, hovers above to give encouragement to Achilles. Prominent in the center is the shield of Achilles, the subject of much of Book 18 of the Iliad, and behind it flows the river Scamander. The herm (a column with the head of a divine figure) on the left represents Heracles, who had first sacked Troy (see p. 569): His club rests against the herm. The herm on the right represents Ares, whose head is turned away from Hector. Above two putti hold a cartouche, into which a Latin metrical inscription was inserted in the tapestry. At the bottom is an altar, on which lie two cornucopias filled with the victor’s palm fronds; in its center are two fighting cocks.

Questions to Consider

1.As the caption notes, Rubens’ work faithfully represents several details from Homer’s account of the duel between Achilles and Hector in the Iliad. The presence of Athena, Hector’s lack of a spear, Achilles' spear in Hector’s throat, the anxious Trojans watching on the wall, the horses that will soon drag Hector’s lifeless body: all these details are scrupulously taken from Book 22 of Homer’s poem. On the other hand, the elaborately wrought armor worn by Achilles and Hector (look at those helmets!), as well as their other clothes and the style of their weapons, are decidedly not Homeric; they belong to the contemporary Europe of Rubens himself. Artistically speaking, what is gained and what is lost by depicting these heroes of antiquity in present-day garb? (It may help to imagine an artist today achieving the same effect by depicting Achilles and Hector in camouflage fatigues, with hi-tech military gear and assault rifles.)

2.What is the effect of this contrast between all the “correct” Homeric details in the scene (see the previous Closer Look question) and the “incorrect” representation of the heroes’ garb? Or is there another way to think about what Rubens is trying to achieve here, in which the categories of “correct” and “incorrect” are not the primary ones, or even all that relevant?