Southern Netherlandish, late 16th/ early 17th century, After Frans Floris...
South Netherlandish, late 16th/ early 17th century
After Frans Floris de Vriendt (1590-1570)
Relief with Hercules and the Pygmies
marble
62 by 41.5 by 8cm., 24⅜ by 16⅜ by 3⅛in.
Catalogue Note:
This spectacular marble relief, populated by no fewer than sixty male nudes, relates the entire legend of Hercules and the Pygmies as told by Philostratus (c. 190–230 CE) in the Eikones, a description of a Neapolitan gallery of paintings.1 Starting at the top left the Gods of Olympus look on as Hercules crushes the giant Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Gaia, in the air. In the lower left corner we see Antaeus’ body lamented over at the proper right hand by his brothers, the Pygmies. On the right Hercules is lulled to sleep by Hypnos as the Pygmies emerge from the earth and attempt to take their revenge, assaulting his limbs, stealing the hero’s club, and setting fire to his hair. Centrally in the background we see Hercules moving away after waking up. Under his left arm he carries his lion’s skin from which the legs of the Pygmies protrude for Hercules woke and laughed as he gathered up the army of little men effortlessly.
The relief is derived from a lost painting by Frans Floris (1590–1570) which was engraved and disseminated by Cornelis Cort (1533–1578).2 When the relief appeared at auction in Munich in 1995 it was together with a pendant, a relief of Apollo flaying Marsyas after a print by Melchior Meier (active 1572–1582) which reappeared in the Important Old Master Paintings sale at Sotheby’s New York on 26 January 2012 (lot 353).3 Given the authorship of the model it is tempting to attribute to the relief to Frans Floris’ son Cornelis, who was responsible for various major sculptural ensembles in the Southern Netherlands. His interest in texture and the execution of certain details such as the architecture in the background and the ringlets that make up the hair of the figures certainly compare to his work. However, Cornelis was at the heart of the Floris-style, which Netherlandish sculptors took to patrons across Europe. Such complex reliefs inspired by graphic sources were especially a staple of Netherlandish sculptors working in Germany and Eastern Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century. The carvings were often part of the decorations of the studioli of noblemen, reception rooms in which art collections were displayed. Philip the Magnanimous, Landgrave of Kassel (1504–1567), for example, commissioned two Netherlandish sculptors to supply a series of Labours of Hercules for his Alabasterzimmer.4 South Netherlandish artists also furnished tombs with series of reliefs. A case in point is the set of historical battle scenes Alexander Colin (1527–1612) provided for the tomb of Maximilian I in the Hofkirche Innsbruck.5 Due north, in Wroclaw and Lviv, Netherlandish sculptors such as Gerhard Hendrik and Hendrik Horst carved similarly populous reliefs for epitaphs and altars using prints by Maarten van Heemskerck and Maerten de Vos around 1600.6
That the subject Hercules and the Pygmies had some currency in palatial settings in particular is proven by several known painted versions of the legend. Dosso Dossi’s (1490–1542) rendition which is now in Graz was meant for Ercole II d’ Este’s (1508–1559) ducal palace in Mantua. A pair of pictures showing Hercules asleep and awake painted by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586) in 1551 was on display in the Riesensaal (Giant’s room) in the castle of the Duke Moritz of Saxony in Dresden.7 There Hercules’ might and vigilance would reflect upon the noblemen who commissioned the objects. It is safe to say that the present relief, especially in combination with the relief of Apollo flaying Marsyas, was also meant to remind the onlooker of the might and preparedness to exact justice of the object’s noble owner.
1 A. Fairbanks, Elder Philostratus, Younger Philostratus, Callistratus, London, 1931, Book II, 22;
2 ‘Hercules besieged by Pygmies’, Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/268723/hercules-besieged-by-pygmies;
3 Hugo Ruef Munich, 466. Auktion, 29-30 June 1995, lot 1610;
4 A. Lipinska, Moving Sculptures. Southern Netherlandish alabasters from the 16th to 17th centuries in Central and Northern Europe, Leiden, 2015, pp. 271-278;
5 C. Haidacher and D. Diemer, Maximilian I. Der Kenotaph in der Hofkirche zu Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 2004;
6 P. Oszczanowski, ‘Wroclawskie epitafium Uthmannów – rcesz o “niderlandyzmie wyuczonym”’, M. Kapustki et al. (eds.), Niderlandyzm na Slasku i w krajach osciennych, Wroclaw, 2003, pp. 203-216; A. Lipinska, ‘Eastern outpost. The sculptors Herman van Hutte and Hendrik Horst in Lviv c. 1560-1610’, F. Scholten et al. (eds.), Art and migration. Netherlandish artists on the move. 1400-1750, Leiden/ Boston, 2014, p. 149, fig. 11;
7 C. J. van Hasselt-von Ronnen, ‘Hercules en de Pygmeeën bij Alciati, Dossi en Cranach’, Simiolus. Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 4, no. 1, 1970, pp. 13-18.
Provenance:
Noble...
South Netherlandish, late 16th/ early 17th century
After Frans Floris de Vriendt (1590-1570)
Relief with Hercules and the Pygmies
marble
62 by 41.5 by 8cm., 24⅜ by 16⅜ by 3⅛in.
Catalogue Note:
This spectacular marble relief, populated by no fewer than sixty male nudes, relates the entire legend of Hercules and the Pygmies as told by Philostratus (c. 190–230 CE) in the Eikones, a description of a Neapolitan gallery of paintings.1 Starting at the top left the Gods of Olympus look on as Hercules crushes the giant Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Gaia, in the air. In the lower left corner we see Antaeus’ body lamented over at the proper right hand by his brothers, the Pygmies. On the right Hercules is lulled to sleep by Hypnos as the Pygmies emerge from the earth and attempt to take their revenge, assaulting his limbs, stealing the hero’s club, and setting fire to his hair. Centrally in the background we see Hercules moving away after waking up. Under his left arm he carries his lion’s skin from which the legs of the Pygmies protrude for Hercules woke and laughed as he gathered up the army of little men effortlessly.
The relief is derived from a lost painting by Frans Floris (1590–1570) which was engraved and disseminated by Cornelis Cort (1533–1578).2 When the relief appeared at auction in Munich in 1995 it was together with a pendant, a relief of Apollo flaying Marsyas after a print by Melchior Meier (active 1572–1582) which reappeared in the Important Old Master Paintings sale at Sotheby’s New York on 26 January 2012 (lot 353).3 Given the authorship of the model it is tempting to attribute to the relief to Frans Floris’ son Cornelis, who was responsible for various major sculptural ensembles in the Southern Netherlands. His interest in texture and the execution of certain details such as the architecture in the background and the ringlets that make up the hair of the figures certainly compare to his work. However, Cornelis was at the heart of the Floris-style, which Netherlandish sculptors took to patrons across Europe. Such complex reliefs inspired by graphic sources were especially a staple of Netherlandish sculptors working in Germany and Eastern Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century. The carvings were often part of the decorations of the studioli of noblemen, reception rooms in which art collections were displayed. Philip the Magnanimous, Landgrave of Kassel (1504–1567), for example, commissioned two Netherlandish sculptors to supply a series of Labours of Hercules for his Alabasterzimmer.4 South Netherlandish artists also furnished tombs with series of reliefs. A case in point is the set of historical battle scenes Alexander Colin (1527–1612) provided for the tomb of Maximilian I in the Hofkirche Innsbruck.5 Due north, in Wroclaw and Lviv, Netherlandish sculptors such as Gerhard Hendrik and Hendrik Horst carved similarly populous reliefs for epitaphs and altars using prints by Maarten van Heemskerck and Maerten de Vos around 1600.6
That the subject Hercules and the Pygmies had some currency in palatial settings in particular is proven by several known painted versions of the legend. Dosso Dossi’s (1490–1542) rendition which is now in Graz was meant for Ercole II d’ Este’s (1508–1559) ducal palace in Mantua. A pair of pictures showing Hercules asleep and awake painted by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586) in 1551 was on display in the Riesensaal (Giant’s room) in the castle of the Duke Moritz of Saxony in Dresden.7 There Hercules’ might and vigilance would reflect upon the noblemen who commissioned the objects. It is safe to say that the present relief, especially in combination with the relief of Apollo flaying Marsyas, was also meant to remind the onlooker of the might and preparedness to exact justice of the object’s noble owner.
1 A. Fairbanks, Elder Philostratus, Younger Philostratus, Callistratus, London, 1931, Book II, 22;
2 ‘Hercules besieged by Pygmies’, Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/268723/hercules-besieged-by-pygmies;
3 Hugo Ruef Munich, 466. Auktion, 29-30 June 1995, lot 1610;
4 A. Lipinska, Moving Sculptures. Southern Netherlandish alabasters from the 16th to 17th centuries in Central and Northern Europe, Leiden, 2015, pp. 271-278;
5 C. Haidacher and D. Diemer, Maximilian I. Der Kenotaph in der Hofkirche zu Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 2004;
6 P. Oszczanowski, ‘Wroclawskie epitafium Uthmannów – rcesz o “niderlandyzmie wyuczonym”’, M. Kapustki et al. (eds.), Niderlandyzm na Slasku i w krajach osciennych, Wroclaw, 2003, pp. 203-216; A. Lipinska, ‘Eastern outpost. The sculptors Herman van Hutte and Hendrik Horst in Lviv c. 1560-1610’, F. Scholten et al. (eds.), Art and migration. Netherlandish artists on the move. 1400-1750, Leiden/ Boston, 2014, p. 149, fig. 11;
7 C. J. van Hasselt-von Ronnen, ‘Hercules en de Pygmeeën bij Alciati, Dossi en Cranach’, Simiolus. Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 4, no. 1, 1970, pp. 13-18.
Provenance:
Noble...
