1 Thackeray’s design for the title page of his novel Pendennis, alluding to the story of Heracles at the Crossroads IV
2 Thackeray’s developed design for the wrapper of Pendennis, again alluding to the Heracles story IV
3 Angelica Kauffman, oil on canvas, Self-Portrait as the Artist hesitating between Music and Painting (1794), Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire NT 960079 6
4 Annibale Carracci, oil on canvas (1596), Capodimonte Museum, Naples, Inv. No. 356 8
5 Paolo de Matteis, oil on canvas (1714), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 10
6 Sir Joshua Reynolds, oil on canvas, the actor Garrick torn between Comedy and Tragedy (1761), private collection, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire 11
7a Bernard Partridge, Punch Cartoon (10th February, 1938) 16
7b Bernard Partridge, Punch Cartoon (18th February, 1925) 16
8 Joseph Anton Koch, drawing (1791), formerly in Staatsgallerie, Stuttgart 18
9 Haynes King, ‘Jealousy and Flirtation’ (1874), Victoria and Albert Museum, London 18
10 Heracles at the Crossroads, representing the choice between different ways of life. Engraving by A. Scultori (Ghisi) after Giulio Romano 20
11 Giovanni Pietro Birago, illustration to a text of the grammarian Aelius Donatus: the young conte di Pavia between Virtue and Pleasure (1496), Manuscript 2167 folio 42 verso in the Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan 29
12 The “Pythagorean ‘Y’” in Geofroy Tory’s Champ Fleury Third Book LXIII, verso 30
13 Johann Sadeler, copper engraving after Frederick Sustris, coloured by Dirk Janszoon van Santen (1595), Maximilian of Bavaria between Virtue and Pleasure 31
14 German woodcut from Stulifera Navis (Latin translation of Jacob Lochner’s Das Narrenschiff) Johann Bergman von Olpe, Basel, 1st August 1497 c.r2 verso. Milan Biblioteca Trivulziana Inc.C4 35
15 Giacomo Pacchiarotto, oil on linen for coffer lid (c.1505–10), Szépmüvészeti Múzeum /Budapest Museum of Fine Arts 37
16 Raphael, oil on canvas, ‘the Knight’s Dream’ (c.1504), National Gallery, London (the numeral in the bottom left hand corner dates from its former inclusion in the Borghese collection) 38
17a Girolamo di Benevenuto, tempora on panel (c.1500), Galleria Giorgio Franchetti, Cá d’Oro, Venice 45
17b Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection (1460s), San Sepolcro, Museo Civico, Palazzo dei Priori 46
18 An arch decorated with a panel representing Ferdinand of Spain as Heracles choosing duty over pleasure. Etching by T. van Thulden after Sir P. P. Rubens 58
19 Jan van den Hoecke, Uffizi Gallery, Florence 60
20 Albrecht Dürer, engraving c.1500, British Museum Fletcher Fund, 1919 63
21 Paolo Veronese, oil on canvas (c.1565), Frick Collection, New York 65
22 Otto Stiernhielm, copper engraving, Frontispiece for Georg Stiernhielm’s Hercules (1658) 67
23 Sebastiano Ricci, oil on canvas, Museo Civico di Belluno 76
24 Pompeo Batoni, oil on canvas (1748), Liechtensteingalerie, Vienna 79
25 Anton Tischler, parody of Pompeo Battoni’s H. at the Crossroads [Plate] on first page of Act One of the Libretto by Metastasio for Alcide al Bivio (1760) 80
26 Engraving of Hogarth A Harlot’s Progress I (1732) She arrives in London. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 96
27 Nicholas Poussin, oil on canvas, Stourhead House, Wiltshire: copy or pastiche of original, dating c.1635–40: see p. 69 n.192 104
28 Giulio Bonasone, woodcut illustration to Achille Bocchi’s ‘Virtue reconciled with Pleasure’ from Symbolicae Quaestiones (Bologna 1555). Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples 106
29 Hellenistic marble relief of Dionysus arriving at a poet’s house, British Museum, Townley Collection, inv. 2190 109
30 Richard Yeo (?), Gold season ticket conferring admission to Vauxhall Gardens (1740) British Museum Inv.1913.0515.1 112
31 John Kasich’s dilemma, USA 2020 117
32 Cartoon from Puck 1885: Heracles [= Grover Cleveland] at the Crossroads 118
33 John Tenniel, Punch cartoon: Gladstone and Disraeli with Heracles/ John Bull at the Crossroads (27th March, 1880) 120
34 Salvatore Fiume, oil on canvas, Se il Cavaliere di Raffaele si svegliasse. Parody of Raphael Plate 24 (1984) 121
35 David Ligare, Heracles protecting the balance between Pleasure and Virtue (1993) 122
36 Martin Maloney, ‘Hey, good looking!’, parody of Poussin plate 25 (1988), Saatchi Gallery, London 123
37 Woodcut from the yearbook Moderne Kunst in Meister-holzschnitten Jahrbuch Kunst (1903) 123
38 Lydia Leonard, Suranne Jones, and Sophie Rundle in a promotional photograph for Season Two of the BBC (and HBO) Gentleman Jack, series, broadcast on television 2022 125
39 Illuminated manuscript of the Panegyricus (c.1334–1343), cod. Royal 6 E IX folio 22 recto 148
40 Manuscript 396 (folio 112 recto) in Morgan Museum. New York, of Guillaume de Machault’s poem Le Livre de la Fonteinne Amoureuse (1425–30), illustrating vv. 1734–8 (Venus speaking) 149
41 Illustration to Christine de Pisan’s L’Epître d’ Othéa, Harley MS 4431 folio 125 verso 151
42 Illustration in Raoul Lefèvre, Recueil des histoires de Troie (1495), Bibliothéque Nationale Paris. B n. Fr. 22552, folio 214 verso 1 152
43 The Judgement of Paris. Engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi, after Raphael 155
44 Lucas Cranach the Elder, oil on panel (1525), Metropolitan Museum, New York, Rogers Fund 28.221 157
45 Doman Hering, stone relief (1529) after engraving by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Bode Museum, Berlin, Skulpturensammelung Inv. no. 1959 Falcke Collection 158
46 Jacob Jordaens, oil on canvas (c.1620–5), Lowe Art Museum, Miami 159
47 Peter Paul Rubens, oil on panel (before 1600), National Gallery, London 6379 160
48 Peter Paul Rubens, oil on panel (1630s), National Gallery, London 194 161
49 Peter Paul Rubens and studio: earlier version of Plate 48: oil on panel, Staatlicher Kunstsammelung Gemäldergallerie, Dresden 162
50a Antoine Watteau, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris 164
50b Frontispiece to Charles Coypeau d’Assoucy’s Le Jugement de Paris en vers burlesques (Paris 1648) 166
51 Baron Jean-Baptiste. Regnault, oil on canvas (c.1812), Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan 168
52 François-Xavier Fabre, oil on canvas (1808) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Accession No. 76.36 169
53 William Blake, watercolour (1811), British Museum, London 1949. 1112.4 170
54a Edward Burne-Jones, painted glazed tile (c.1862–3), William Morris Gallery 172
54b Cristoforo Majorana, watercolour on parchment, illustration of Ovid Heroides Book 16 (c.1500). Huntington Library, San Marino, California 172
55 Gustav Pope, oil on canvas (1889), private collection 173
56 Ithell Colquhoun, oil on canvas (1930), Hove Museum and Art Gallery 175
57 Aphrodite riding on ram, Decoration on Greek Folding Mirror (c.500–450 BC) Louvre Museum, Paris 1707 (N 3536) 175
58 Eleanor Antin, print after Rubens [Plate 48] (2007) 176
59 Edouard Manet, oil on canvas, Le Bain or Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (1863), Musée d’Orsay, Paris 178
60 Hans Eworth or Joris Hoefnagel, oil on canvas. Queen Elisabeth the First routs the three goddesses of the Judgement of Paris (1569), Hampton Court Royal Collection RCN 403446 181
61 Henry William Bunbury, engraving (1771), Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven. Paul Mellon Collection 192
62 John Tenniel, Punch cartoon (28th October, 1848) 193
63 John Tenniel Punch Cartoon (30th August, 1862) 194
64 John Tenniel, Punch cartoon (17th July, 1847) 195
65 Bernard Partridge, Punch cartoon (26th March, 1928) 197
66 Alice Reeve, The Judgement of Paris a.k.a. The world’s first beauty contest 201
67a J.B. (‘Bud’) Handelsman, cartoon in The New Yorker (August 27th, 1990) 201
67b J.B. (‘Bud’) Handelsman, cartoon in The New Yorker (February 19th, 1996) 202
68 William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress II: the Rake’s Levée (1734), Sir John Soane’s Museum, London 203