Peter Paul Rubens, Hero and Leander, ca. 1604. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Susan Morse Hilles

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Peter Paul Rubens, Hero and Leander, ca. 1604. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Susan Morse Hilles

RFERENCES:

Hans Vlieghe’s encyclopedia entry is an excellent summary by a leading authority on Peter Paul Rubens’s life and career, and its extensive bibliography is up to date.

For "Hero and Leander", Amy Golahny’s article is a thorough study of the picture, especially its influence on 17th-century writers.

Marjorie E. Wieseman’s catalogue entry summarizes most of what is known.

The David Jaffe and Elizabeth McGrath’s exhibition catalogue is very well illustrated and is the best study available of Rubens’s working methods.

The Loeb edition of Callimachus and Musaeus includes the authoritative translation of the poem that inspired the painting.
 

Vlieghe, Hans. “Peter Paul Rubens.” In Grove Art Online.
 

Golahny, Amy.
“Rubens’ ‘Hero and Leander’ and Its Poetic Progeny.” Y
ale University Art Gallery Bulletin, pp. 20–37.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. The Age of Rubens. Exh. cat. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1993–94: no. 6.
Jaffe, David, and Elizabeth McGrath. Rubens: A Master in the Making. Exh. cat. London: National Gallery, 2006–7: no. 17.
 

Musaeus. “Hero and Leander.” In Callimachus: Aetia, Iambi, Hecale, and Other Fragments; Musaeus Hero and Leander. Trans. Cedric Whitman. Loeb Classical Library No. 421. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973: 344–87