Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla

Zurbarán painted Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla around 1634 as part of his ten-painting Hercules series for the Hall of Realms in the Buen Retiro Palace. The subject depicts the mythological foundation of the Strait of Gibraltar — the Pillars of Hercules — as the hero separated two mountains to create the passage between the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The Habsburg dynasty claimed Hercules as their legendary ancestor, and the Pillars of Hercules featured in their dynastic motto Plus ultra — further beyond — making this subject of particular ideological importance to the Spanish royal glorification program the palace embodied. Zurbarán's treatment emphasizes the heroic physical effort of the act, his monumental figure style suited to conveying superhuman strength.

Zurbarán renders the nude Hercules with the same monumental solidity he brings to his saints, the figure straining between the two rocky peaks against a dramatically lit sky.