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Lot Essay
The giant Antaeus derived his strength from the earth, remaining alive and incredibly strong as long as some part of his body touched the ground. In a wrestling match with Hercules he was held above the ground long enough for him to die.
This configuration of the struggle between Hercules and Antaeus is derived from an engraving (see p. 66) after the painting in the Palazzo Medici, Florence, painted in circa 1460 by the brothers Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo. Another dish (depicting Hercules slaying the Giants) with an almost identical border was formerly in the Alfred Pringsheim Collection sold by Sotheby's on 7th June 1939, lot 26, is now in the Robert Lehman Collection, see Jörg Rasmussen, Italian Majolica in the Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, pp. 64-65, no. 37.
This configuration of the struggle between Hercules and Antaeus is derived from an engraving (see p. 66) after the painting in the Palazzo Medici, Florence, painted in circa 1460 by the brothers Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo. Another dish (depicting Hercules slaying the Giants) with an almost identical border was formerly in the Alfred Pringsheim Collection sold by Sotheby's on 7th June 1939, lot 26, is now in the Robert Lehman Collection, see Jörg Rasmussen, Italian Majolica in the Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, pp. 64-65, no. 37.