Lot Essay
In 1576, Giambologna was given the commission to produce six silver groups representing the Labours of Hercules, which were to surmount arches in the Tribuna of the Uffizi (Avery, loc. cit.). None of these silver versions are known to exist today, but the compositions were popoular and numerous bronze examples, of varying quality, are known. Only two of the bronze versions are documented as having been cast in Giambologna's own lifetime, and one of these is the Hercules and Antaeus group now in the Kunsthistorisches Musem, Vienna.
The complex composition of this group is derived from a variety of sources, including an antique marble and the famous bronze group of the same subject by Pollaiuolo, both of which were in the Medici collection in the 1570s. It allowed Giambologna to display his mastery at creating a bronze which could be appreciated from any angle, and displays the typical Giambologna motif of the repeated 'V' forms created by the bent arms and legs of the figures.
The present group is a rare variant of the original Giambologna composition, known only in two other documented examples. Unlike the model as represnted by the Kunsthistorisches Museum type, Hercules here wears a laurel wreath, and Antaeus has a moustache. This type has been associated in the past with Adriaen de Vries, but it is more likely to have been the invention of Pietro Tacca, who succeeded Giambologna as court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes at the time of Giambolgna's death in 1608. This cast is known to have been in the collection of the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham because it appears in an inventory of his possessions at the time of his death in 1782 (Penny, loc. cit.). It may also be identical with a 'Giambologna' bronze which the second marquess is known to have bought on the Grand Tour in Florence in 1749, while still the Earl of Malton.
The complex composition of this group is derived from a variety of sources, including an antique marble and the famous bronze group of the same subject by Pollaiuolo, both of which were in the Medici collection in the 1570s. It allowed Giambologna to display his mastery at creating a bronze which could be appreciated from any angle, and displays the typical Giambologna motif of the repeated 'V' forms created by the bent arms and legs of the figures.
The present group is a rare variant of the original Giambologna composition, known only in two other documented examples. Unlike the model as represnted by the Kunsthistorisches Museum type, Hercules here wears a laurel wreath, and Antaeus has a moustache. This type has been associated in the past with Adriaen de Vries, but it is more likely to have been the invention of Pietro Tacca, who succeeded Giambologna as court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes at the time of Giambolgna's death in 1608. This cast is known to have been in the collection of the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham because it appears in an inventory of his possessions at the time of his death in 1782 (Penny, loc. cit.). It may also be identical with a 'Giambologna' bronze which the second marquess is known to have bought on the Grand Tour in Florence in 1749, while still the Earl of Malton.