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Lot Essay
The earliest known reference to Francesco Segala is in 1559 recording his marriage in Padua. By this date he was already an independent sculptor although key details of his early training, such as to whom he was apprenticed, are not known. Paduan contemporaries including Tiziano Minio (1517?-1552) and Agostino Zoppo (c. 1520-1572) have been suggested as early influences on his style, as have the sculptures of the Florence-born Jacopo Sansovino. Segala enjoyed a successful career both in his native city where he was patronized by prominent figures like Alvise Cornaro but also in other key artistic centers in northern Italy. In Mantua, for example, he was entrusted with creating the figural decoration in stucco for the Sala dei Marchesi in the Palazzo Ducale (1578-79). In Venice he crafted the marble allegories of Abundance and Charity for the Scala d’Oro in the Doge’s Palace (c. 1581) and the bronze figure of John the Baptist for San Marco (1565). A very rare example of Segala’s artistic output in colored wax survives in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, in the form of a relief portrait of Archduke Ferdinand II. The work is signed by the artist and was likely created for the sitter’s renowned Kunstkammer (c. 1580).
The attribution of the model for the present lot to Segala was first proposed by Lauts in 1936 and this suggestion is now widely accepted. Based on stylistic comparison, the date of execution is placed at circa 1565. The composition relates to the immense stone Hercules created by Bartolomeo Ammannati for Marco Mantova Benavides in 1545 that still dominates the courtyard of his former Paduan palazzo. Other known variants of the present bronze are housed in the Musei Civici in Padua, the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Royal Collection at Hampton Court, the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin (lost since 1945) and in the collection of Robert H. Smith († 2009) now donated to the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The present bronze is closest in its meticulous treatment of the surface to the Smith version, employing extensive cold chiseling, chasing and filing to achieve the resulting character in the hair and skin. These exceptional life-inducing details evoke enormous power and strength in the visage and render the Quentin bronze distinct among the known variants. This present Hercules, like several of the other extant versions, probably originally surmounted an andiron and was one half of a pair, accompanied perhaps by a figure of Omphale.
The attribution of the model for the present lot to Segala was first proposed by Lauts in 1936 and this suggestion is now widely accepted. Based on stylistic comparison, the date of execution is placed at circa 1565. The composition relates to the immense stone Hercules created by Bartolomeo Ammannati for Marco Mantova Benavides in 1545 that still dominates the courtyard of his former Paduan palazzo. Other known variants of the present bronze are housed in the Musei Civici in Padua, the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Royal Collection at Hampton Court, the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin (lost since 1945) and in the collection of Robert H. Smith († 2009) now donated to the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The present bronze is closest in its meticulous treatment of the surface to the Smith version, employing extensive cold chiseling, chasing and filing to achieve the resulting character in the hair and skin. These exceptional life-inducing details evoke enormous power and strength in the visage and render the Quentin bronze distinct among the known variants. This present Hercules, like several of the other extant versions, probably originally surmounted an andiron and was one half of a pair, accompanied perhaps by a figure of Omphale.