Cerberus depiction for large bronze statue

mx_599

New Member
Hope I could get some ideas. I understand that Cerberus is a mythological creature, but are there any accurate descriptions/ depictions of this dog? I am planning a large bronze statue and if I am going to put this much into the project wanted some "accuracy". If I am unable to get any ideas or references from forums or university scholars, I will fall back on the figurine sculpture attached below.
Is the general consensus that there is no right or wrong depiction?

Thanks everyone!

 

Alejandro

Active Member

With mythology in general there is very seldom a right or wrong depiction of anything. In specific reference to Kerberos [Cerberus], ancient mythographers and artists do not seem to have had a general consensus themselves as to what he looked like exactly. What one is likely to find in general in mythology is that there is a commonest or most popular version of myths and depictions of characters and other elements of the stories found in the myths, and then there are invariably obscurer, more random versions of the same. Kerberos is no different in that respect. In both ancient and modern times the most frequent rendition of the dog, whether in writing or in visual artistry, is not too much different from your sculptural example: menacing and triple-headed.

But there’re further details which are often neglected and which the first people to write about Kerberos (and at least one ancient vase painter who depicted him) have told us about [or have shown us]. Kerberos had the paws of a lion and was essentially part dragon like many members of his family. Either his tail or mane (or both) was made of snakes. This is seldom the case in the oldest Greek vase paintings that have survived but here’s [the work of the] one artist who actually tried to portray this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herakles_Kerberos_Eurystheus_Louvre_E701.jpg

One of the aforementioned first writers is Hesiod, who in his Theogony says that Kerberos had fifty heads. One could interpret this to mean that the dog had three canine heads growing from his torso; and 47 snake-heads growing out of his mane or forming his tail or both. A few Roman writers say that he had a hundred heads but, like Hesiod, fail to elaborate what that might look like on a monstrous dragon-dog.

Less common depictions of the beast have him identical to his brother Orthos, with only two heads, such as here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:12th_labour_of_Heracles_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_19119.png (in the right corner of the image, next to Persephone), and sometimes with even just one head.

Later art has somewhat more imaginative renditions of the monster, such as the Swedish Kerberos who guards the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KTH_Kerberos.jpg

Gustave Doré seems to have conceived of the hellhound, in my opinion, slightly more accurately as part snake/dragon. Doré’s Cerbere is a triple-headed monster with serpentine necks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cerbere.jpg A more recent artist seems to have been inspired by that Cerbere and made him scalier: http://fleurdelyse.deviantart.com/art/Cerberus-318032357

There’s also this artist’s really freaky werewolf-like Cerberus, who appears literally in Hell, like in Dante’s Inferno (rather than the ancient Greek Underworld) >> http://jartsev.deviantart.com/art/Cerberus-300831746

Having said all that, art is a particularly inexact science (myths even more so), so how one would choose to interpret something like this is very much a matter of one’s own self-expressiveness… & taste, I guess. For example, there’re some much more radical renditions of this monster out there which feel essentially wrong or implausible to me but as someone else reads the myths they might be imagining something like this piece from back in the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RomanCerberus.JPG or it might be something more frenetic from the modern era like so: http://genzoman.deviantart.com/art/Cerberus-215948317

It’s up to you as the artist. All the best with the sculpting!
 
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Myrddin

Well-Known Member
Hope I could get some ideas. I understand that Cerberus is a mythological creature, but are there any accurate descriptions/ depictions of this dog? I am planning a large bronze statue and if I am going to put this much into the project wanted some "accuracy". If I am unable to get any ideas or references from forums or university scholars, I will fall back on the figurine sculpture attached below.
Is the general consensus that there is no right or wrong depiction?

Thanks everyone!
My only suggestion is to read a few of the stories about Cerebus, or Kerberos, to get your artistic mojo going. I myself sometimes find a little music helpful for inspiration. (e.g. I listen to horror movie themes when trying to wrote horror stories) Whatever tunes make you think of mythology may just help. Like Alejandro said, every artist has their own interpretation. Now, Cerebus genereally does have three heads and, compared to a human, is quite monstrous in size. Those are the only aspects that rarely change. Now, you said it's going to be a statue, so my only other suggestion is to do a few pre-sketches of your ideas on paper first (but I'm probably telling you things you already know, so I'll just stop typing now). :D

Good luck!

E. M.
 
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