Lot Essay
This bronze is known as the Hercules Pomarius, because the hero is holding an apple in his left hand. The eleventh Labour of Hercules required him to steal the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, which lay in the west on the slopes of Mount Atlas. In one version of the myth, Hercules slew the serpent Ladon and picked the apples, whereas in another Atlas did so, while Hercules temporarily took over his burden of supporting the world.
Four examples of the present bronze are known: one formerly in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, stolen in October 1968 (Leeuwenburg and Halsema-Kubes, loc. cit.); one in the Abbot-Guggenheim Collection (Camins, loc. cit.); one in the Robert H. Smith Collection (Radcliffe, 1994, loc. cit.); and the present piece. A fifth example in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig is a variant model by Caspar von Turckelstein (Berger and Krahn, loc. cit.).
The attribution of this bronze to William Danielsz. van Tetrode was advanced by Avery and Radcliffe on the basis of stylistic analogies with two bronze variants of the Farnese Hercules in the Bargello, which are documented works by Tetrode (Vienna, loc. cit.). The 1624 inventory of the Delft goldsmith Thomas Cruse contains references to 'Een Hercules van W.T.roe' and to 'form van den groten Hercules van W. Tettero' (Avery, loc. cit.), which may well have been related to the present bronze.
A number of reflections of this figure are to be found in the works of Hendrik Goltzius, notably in his engraving De Grote Hercules of 1589 (Radcliffe, 1985, op. cit., pp. 136-138). After many years in Italy, Tetrode returned to his native Netherlands, and is documented in Delft in 1568. By 1574-5 he was in Cologne, in the service of the Archbishop Elector. Radcliffe dated the Hercules Pomarius to the years of the return to Delft, 1568-1573, and hypothesised that Goltzius knew examples of his work in the Netherlands (Radcliffe, 1985, loc. cit.). Other scholars have tended to agree with this dating (Nystad, op. cit., p. 274).
Two earlier drawings, both of a muscular figure seen from the back, respectively by Beccafumi and Leonardo da Vinci, have been adduced as sources for the pose of the Hercules Pomarius (Radcliffe, 1994, op. cit., pp. 138-139). A hitherto unnoticed, but even more telling comparison is with a circular plaquette in the Bargello (Toderi and Vannel Toderi, loc. cit.). The piece in question, which has been associated with Leone Leoni's medal of Ferrante Gonzaga of 1555-6, is undated and of unknown authorship. It seems hard to avoid the conclusion, however, that it is either Tetrode's source or a reflection of his Hercules. If - as seems more likely - the plaquette is inspired by the bronze, then it would almost inevitably suggest that the Hercules Pomarius was executed in Italy before his return north in 1568.
Four examples of the present bronze are known: one formerly in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, stolen in October 1968 (Leeuwenburg and Halsema-Kubes, loc. cit.); one in the Abbot-Guggenheim Collection (Camins, loc. cit.); one in the Robert H. Smith Collection (Radcliffe, 1994, loc. cit.); and the present piece. A fifth example in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig is a variant model by Caspar von Turckelstein (Berger and Krahn, loc. cit.).
The attribution of this bronze to William Danielsz. van Tetrode was advanced by Avery and Radcliffe on the basis of stylistic analogies with two bronze variants of the Farnese Hercules in the Bargello, which are documented works by Tetrode (Vienna, loc. cit.). The 1624 inventory of the Delft goldsmith Thomas Cruse contains references to 'Een Hercules van W.T.roe' and to 'form van den groten Hercules van W. Tettero' (Avery, loc. cit.), which may well have been related to the present bronze.
A number of reflections of this figure are to be found in the works of Hendrik Goltzius, notably in his engraving De Grote Hercules of 1589 (Radcliffe, 1985, op. cit., pp. 136-138). After many years in Italy, Tetrode returned to his native Netherlands, and is documented in Delft in 1568. By 1574-5 he was in Cologne, in the service of the Archbishop Elector. Radcliffe dated the Hercules Pomarius to the years of the return to Delft, 1568-1573, and hypothesised that Goltzius knew examples of his work in the Netherlands (Radcliffe, 1985, loc. cit.). Other scholars have tended to agree with this dating (Nystad, op. cit., p. 274).
Two earlier drawings, both of a muscular figure seen from the back, respectively by Beccafumi and Leonardo da Vinci, have been adduced as sources for the pose of the Hercules Pomarius (Radcliffe, 1994, op. cit., pp. 138-139). A hitherto unnoticed, but even more telling comparison is with a circular plaquette in the Bargello (Toderi and Vannel Toderi, loc. cit.). The piece in question, which has been associated with Leone Leoni's medal of Ferrante Gonzaga of 1555-6, is undated and of unknown authorship. It seems hard to avoid the conclusion, however, that it is either Tetrode's source or a reflection of his Hercules. If - as seems more likely - the plaquette is inspired by the bronze, then it would almost inevitably suggest that the Hercules Pomarius was executed in Italy before his return north in 1568.