Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Giambologna 1529-1608 - Sculptor to the Medici, 5 October - 16 November 1978, no. 77, p. 124.
C. Avery, Giambologna - The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, cat. no. 78, pp. 141-2.
This version derives from a Giambologna composition, arguably the finest version of which is in the State Hermitage, Leningrad. However, the artist has dramatically changed the balance of the group by placing the hydra in front of Hercules and therefore making him look over his left shoulder rather than under his right one as in the original. The modelling of the hydra and the colour of the bronze suggest a foundry north of the Alps.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Giambologna 1529-1608 - Sculptor to the Medici, 5 October - 16 November 1978, no. 77, p. 124.
C. Avery, Giambologna - The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, cat. no. 78, pp. 141-2.
This version derives from a Giambologna composition, arguably the finest version of which is in the State Hermitage, Leningrad. However, the artist has dramatically changed the balance of the group by placing the hydra in front of Hercules and therefore making him look over his left shoulder rather than under his right one as in the original. The modelling of the hydra and the colour of the bronze suggest a foundry north of the Alps.