CIRCLE OF WILLEM DANIELSZ VAN TETRODE (D. 1588), CIRCA 1600

Details

A BRONZE GROUP OF HERCULES AND CACUS
CIRCLE OF WILLEM DANIELSZ VAN TETRODE (D. 1588), CIRCA 1600
Hercules with a club in his upraised right hand, standing astride Cacus on his hands and knees; on an integral, naturalistic rectangular base and a later rectangular rouge griotte marble plinth
15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) high, the bronze; 17 3⁄8 in. (44 cm.) wide, overall

Provenance

Alain Moatti, 1975,
Acquired from the above by the Blaquier-Arrieta Family.

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. G. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Sculpture: Marbles, Terra-Cottas and Bronzes, Carvings in Ivory and Wood, Plaquettes, Medals, Coins, and Wax-Reliefs, London, 1931, p. 46 and pl. 33.
Walters Art Gallery, World of Wonder, Baltimore, 1971, no. 79.
L. Goldscheider, Michelangelo, Paintings Architecture, Complete Edition, London, 1975, p. 18, pl. XXIII, b.
W. Bode, The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance, rev. ed. by J. Draper, 1980, New York, p. 105, pl. CXCVIII.
S. Ebert-Schifferer, Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, exh. cat., 1985, pp. 551-552.
J. Warren, The Wallace Collection – Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, 2016, II, pp. 488-95, cat. no. 111.
I. Lores-Chavez, 'The Plaster Cast and the Intimacy of the Studio,' Ge-conservación, 2023, no. 23, pp. 122-123.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This bronze Hercules and Cacus group is known in other casts in The Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. S121), The Walters Art Museum, Maryland (inv. no. 54.248), and the Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid. Originally thought to be by the workshop of Giambologna, the presence of an ivory version of the subject led scholars to suggest Germanic or Netherlandish origins for the model (Warren, 2016, loc. cit.).

Here, Hercules entraps the giant Cacus between his legs, ready to strike a fatal blow with his club. The violence of the act is accentuated by the entanglement of the two figures. It is presumed that this model was circulated widely across Europe as it is present in the background of several Dutch seventeenth-century paintings, including Gerrit Dou’s The Artist in His Studio (1647) at the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden (inv. no. 1704). This lively bronze therefore has a lasting legacy across both art forms.

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