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Hercules (Head and Torso) Attributed to Giambologna (Douai, 1529

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Hercules (Head and Torso) Attributed to Giambologna (Douai, 1529 Hercules (head and torso) Attributed to Giambologna (Douai, 1529-Florence, 1608) Florence, before 1581 Marble 55 cm in height Depicted here is the torso of a naked man, who is standing with his head falling forward onto his chest, with the stump of the right arm raised, while the left is kept close to the body. The figure is leaning to the left as if applying force or striking something with the right arm. The weight of the piece is therefore falling to that side (the left) with a slight tilting movement that can be clearly appreciated on the back, with the curved portrayal of the spine. The eyes are devoid of irises and are shallowly etched; the forehead has only two wrinkles, while the mouth is straight and slightly open. The hair is curled into tight locks, the tips of the moustache point downwards and the beard consists of short ringlets. The model is muscular, with a very broad neck and thick arms and legs, as befits the depiction of a classical mythological hero. Seen as a whole, the figure presents a number of perspectives. The piece has been executed with consummate mastery and freshness in the sculpting of the marble, with a detailed treatment of the hair and beard, although the surface reveals some of the wear caused by the passage of time and by the fact it has been exposed to the elements. The musculature is gently modelled, albeit with pronounced forms. Although there are no signs to indicate that it bore a club behind its back as in other models, it is undoubtedly a depiction of Hercules, whose defining trait was the physical strength he used to undertake the labours that made him famous. The subject was extremely popular, which means that since Antiquity it has been portrayed in all kinds of media, including frescoes, pottery, stone coffins, and sculptures large and small, reaching its apogee during the Renaissance, when several stone coffins, or sarcophagi, on public display both in Rome and in Florence and Pisa provided a source of inspiration and instruction for artists. The subject was chosen for the series of medallions struck by Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, called “l’Antico”, a bronzesmith who plied his trade in Mantua in the court of the Gonzaga and, in due course, by now in the time of the Medici, for the series of monumental marbles commissioned to Vincenzo di Rossi for the ornament of the Great Hall in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Giambologna According to his first biographer, Raffaello Borghini, Giambologna began sculpting marble miniatures to showcase his artistic skill, not only in such materials as clay and wax, but also in more refined and more durable media. “After making much progress thereby, he began to be recognized by other artists as a man of great prowess -though they said that he was only good at modelling in clay and wax. So Giambologna wanted to show that he was also able to prove his talent in marble and begged Vecchietti to let him have the marble to make something. Having got hold of a block he carved from it in no time at all an exceedingly beautiful Venus. Next he was introduced by Vecchietti into the service of Signor Don Francesco Medici, he was then only Prince, and began to draw a salary”1 The writer was referring to a marble Venus that Giambologna presented as a gift to his patron, and owner of the “Il Riposo” villa, Bernardo Vecchietti. In turn, according to the same source, he carved another statue in marble, Galatea, measuring 2.5 braccia (146 cm), which his patron sent to Germany (both pieces are now lost). After entering a model in the 1560 competitive tender for the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria (which he did not win because of his youth, although according to the chroniclers of the time it was the best), Giambologna created a small alabaster relief, the Allegory of Prince Francesco de’ Medici (Prado Museum)2, (Fig. 1) which served both to introduce him to the court, and shortly afterwards, in 1562, to receive his first commission for a monumental group, Samson and a Philistine, in 1 Borghini, 1584, p. 586, (the original text is in Italian). The English translation is by Avery, 1987, p. 250. 2 Coppel, 1998, no. 3 marble, to be mounted on a fountain in the gardens of one of the villas belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Tuscany, the Casino at San Marco.3 (Fig. 2) Shortly afterwards, he received the commission that would finally establish him as a sculptor, the Fountain of Neptune, in bronze, located in the main square in Bologna. In addition to the huge statue of the god of the sea, the fountain in question also included four putti supporting dolphins on the plinth, four Nereids, and numerous ornaments of imaginary foliage.4 Over the course of those years, he also sculpted other pieces in marble, a putto for the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents), which is now to be found in Douai, at the Musée de la Chartreuse, and the portrayal of Architecture (Florence, Bargello National Museum). In 1566, Giambologna relocated to the workshop in the Palazzo Vecchio, designed by Vasari, where he would remain for twenty years; with the reason for the move being to sculpt the marble statue of Florence Triumphant over Pisa (which he had previously executed in plaster), to be installed in the great hall, facing Michelangelo’s Victory. At around that time, he was extremely busy as a decorator of gardens, casting a series of bronze animals for the grotto at Castello, another of the villas belonging to the Medici,5 which would culminate with the great marble statue on the Fountain of the Ocean (1567-76) for the Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace, for which he also made the bronze statue of the so-called Venus of the Grotticella.6 (Fig. 3) In August 1569, according to documents in the State Archives of Florence, several blocks of marble were delivered to the sculptor’s workshop: “per fare una statua per Gabolognia iscultore per il salone del palazzo ducale”. / Nel 1572 Gio. Bologna lavorava la Firenze per il palazzo Pitti (sic) e Gio. Cioli fece il basamento”.7 3 It was sent to Spain in 1601, as a courtly gift for the Duke of Lerma, who displayed it in his palace in Valladolid. Years later, in 1623, it was presented to the Prince of Wales, and it is now to be found in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Avery, 1987, no. 3. 4 Dhanens, 1956, p. 330; Avery, 1987, no. 31. 5 Among them, all life size, the following are kept at the Bargello National Museum: Dove; Turkey; Thrush; Falcon; Eagle; Owl; Peacock. Exh. Cat. Giambologna, 2006, pp. 249-252, no. 50. 6 During his visit to Florence in 1572, Sir Joshua Reynolds saw the models, considering them to be “admirable”; later on, when he viewed the sources, he affirmed that these models were better than the original pieces by Michelangelo. Published by Avery, 1987, p. 248, note 2. 7 Keutner, 1968, note 9 on p. 307. What’s more, Giambologna remained in touch with his patron, Bernardo Vecchietti, for whom, in 1571, he drafted the design for a grotto in the garden at his villa, decorated with a fountain crowned by a marble sculpture, Fata Morgana.8 (Fig. 4) That same year, Vecchietti had travelled to Rome to acquire antiques for the Medici collection,9 an undertaking that may have influenced the trip that Giambologna himself later made with Vasari, and which the sculptor put to good use by drawing some of the city’s most famous statues.10 It was after that trip, by then in the 1570s, when Giambologna devoted himself with even greater ardour to the crafting of sculptures under the influence of Michelangelo and the statuary of Antiquity. There is a surviving sketchbook, known as the “Taccuino di Cambridge”, which contains some of the drawings made there, which are essential to an understanding of his early career.11 When Cosimo I died in 1574 and Francesco was named Duke of Tuscany, Giambologna continued to work for the latter – in 1571 he had cast a statue of Apollo, one of the eight bronzes he used to decorate his “Studiolo”,12 and in 1576 he was commissioned to produce a series on the Labours of Hercules to be cast in silver. This signalled the beginning of a period in which his bronze miniatures were highly sought after by the most renowned collectors, both at home in Italy and abroad, as has been well documented. There is a surviving text of key importance that clearly describes the sculptor’s activity at that time. It is a letter dated 27 October 1581, written by Simone Fortuna to Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. In it, Simone Fortuna, the Duke’s artistic agent, informed the later who yearned to own marble figures of Adam and Eve, measuring one braccio (58.5 cm) by the great master-13 that Giambologna refused to 8 Sold by the heirs to Thomas Patch, it arrived in England in 1775, for the Count of Hopetoun. It is now in a private collection. Bury, 1990. 9 Jestaz, 1963, p. 462, no. 77. 10 Letter dated 25 January 1572, written by Vasari to Francesco de Medici, describing the journey: “Per la bocha di Maestro Giovan Bolognia intenderà che già ò fatto molti disegni per Nostro Signore di tavole et dellas vittoria de ‘ Turchi, che tutti gliò mostro, et menatolo a’piedi di Sua Santità., et detto che è creatura di Vostra Altezza, et che tiene il principato degli scultori.
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