Hercules, Nessus and Deianeira

Sharply cast in sand and carefully chased. The surface is partly covered with a fine textural pattern made with an abrasive. The group has been assembled from fourteen parts, most often attached to one another with sleeve joins; only the figures are assembled with screws.¹¹See J. Bassett et al, The Craftsman Revealed: Adriaen de Vries, Sculptor in Bronze, Los Angeles 2008, pp. 254-55 for an overview. The entirety is coated with a deep reddish-brown, organic (lacquer) patina.
Alloy high zinc brass with some tin; copper with low impurities (Cu 70.66%; Zn 26.88%; Sn 1.14%; Pb 0.85%; As 0.05%; Fe 0.09%).²²XRF analysis, A. Pappot 2016. The outcome of the XRF analysis by J. Bassett in 2009 was: Cu c. 72%; Zn c. 26%; Sn c. 1%; Pb c. 1 à 2% and the trace elements nickel, iron, silver and arsenic. See J. Bassett et al, The Craftsman Revealed: Adriaen de Vries, Sculptor in Bronze, Los Angeles 2008, p. 33.
Core material 60% clay; 31% quartz; 8% feldspar; multiple trace elements.³³J. Bassett et al, The Craftsman Revealed: Adriaen de Vries, Sculptor in Bronze, Los Angeles 2008, p. 33.

J. Bassett et al., The Craftsman Revealed: Adriaen de Vries, Sculptor in Bronze, Los Angeles 2008, pp. 33, 250-56, 291, 294, 297; R. van Langh and J.J. Boon, ‘Comprehensive Studies of Patinas in Renaissance Bronze Statuettes with Laboratory, Synchrotron and Neutron Aided Techniques’, 17th ICOM-CC Triennial Conference Preprints, Melbourne, 15-19 September 2014, Paris 2014, pp. 1-7, esp. p. 3

The lacquer patina has sustained wear in some areas, resulting in a dull grey colour.

…; from the dealer Frank Partridge & Sons, London, £ 1,100 (fl. 11,752), to the museum, 1957

ObjectNumber: BK-1957-2

Numerous replicas of Adriaen de Vries’s (1556-1626) Hercules, Nessus and Deianeira group in the Louvre⁴⁴Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. OA 5424 (h. 81.7 cm), see F. Scholten et al., Adriaen de Vries 1556-1626: Imperial Sculptor, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Stockholm (Nationalmuseum)/Los Angeles (The J. Paul Getty Museum) 1998-2000, no. 14. Wengraf recently raised doubts concerning the originality of this work, on entirely questionable grounds, see P. Wengraf, ‘The Louvre’s Hercules and Deianeira with Nessus: A Later Adaptation after Adriaen de Vries’s Theseus and Antiope in the Royal Collection, Windsor’, in C.H. Miner (ed.), The Eternal Baroque: Studies in Honour of Jennifer Montagu, Milan 2015, pp. 119-28. are known to exist. Long viewed as original, seventeenth-century works, these bronzes have commonly been attributed to De Vries.⁵⁵Sixteen works were counted in total, in some cases possibly concerning the same piece: Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. BK-1957-2; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, inv. no. 44-53; Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. 66/100; Versailles, Musée Lambinet (marked ‘Paillard’); sale Montluçon, France, 6 December 1992; sale London (Sotheby’s), 13 December 1990, no. 133 (marked ‘Crozatier’); Paris, collection Alberto Pinto, 1987; Edinburgh, Dalmeny House, Earl of Rosebery (2 works); Florence, art dealer Lungarno, 1970 (marked ‘Giovanni Bologna’); sale Monaco (Sotheby’s) 28 October 1979, no. 161; sale New York (Sotheby’s) 8-9 December 1978, no. 135 (former collection Partridge, London); sale New York (Sotheby’s), 1 June 1978, no. 216; sale Paris (Drouot-Richelieu), 6 December 1991, no. 17; England, private collection 1982 (kindly communicated by Patricia Wengraf); Madrid, private collection, 1979 (annotation in dossier Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe); sale collection Robert de Balkany, Paris (Sotheby’s), 20 September 2016, no. 8 (marked ‘Paillard’). Following an in-depth technical analysis and comparison of known casts with the original version of De Vries’s group – documented in the French royal collections from 1681 on and bearing the engraved inventory number (No. 301) from the collection of King Louis XIV – all proved to be in fact sand-cast replicas made in the nineteenth century, furnished with a high-quality finishing and an ostensibly authentic patina.

As far as has been determined, all (excepting the Louvre original) are assembled from individually cast parts, subsequently joined with screws. In addition, the figures are composed of smaller components attached, as it were, without joins.⁶⁶J. Bassett et al, The Craftsman Revealed: Adriaen de Vries, Sculptor in Bronze, Los Angeles 2008, pp. 254-56. Joins are sometimes discernible through the patina, such as on the neck of the Karlsruhe Hercules. Inventive solutions are also employed to camouflage the assembly joins: the rear foot of the same figure is cast together with a small section of the ground on which he stands. As a result, where one normally expects to see a join – between the sole of the foot and the base – one finds nothing.

Among these replicas are a number of variants. Apart from minimal differences such as the modelling of the hair, there are two versions of Hercules: with or without cache-sexe. A second general determinant for distinguishing different versions is the base, occurring in a rectangular or round variant. Finally, the colour and structure of the patinas vary. The Rijksmuseum bronze has a dark-brown patina with grey areas of wear, versus the Kansas City bronze with its warm, chocolatey brown, much of which is covered by a faded dark lacquer patina.

Conclusive evidence regarding the maker of these copies is conveyed by a work sold in London in 1990, a bronze bearing the signature and date Crozatier 1847.⁷⁷Sale London (Sotheby’s), 13 December 1990, no. 133. My thanks to Patricia Wengraf (London), who brought my attention to this. According to her (letter dated 24 October 1993), this bronze was signed and dated (in italics). The signature and date are not mentioned in the sale catalogue, but the description points in this direction: ‘perhaps French, c. 1840’. See also P. Wengraf, ‘The Louvre’s Hercules and Deianeira with Nessus: A Later Adaptation after Adriaen de Vries’s Theseus and Antiope in the Royal Collection, Windsor’, in C.H. Miner (ed.), The Eternal Baroque: Studies in Honour of Jennifer Montagu, Milan 2015, pp. 119-28, esp. p. 125, fig. 5; similarly, during the early 1960s in Paris, the bronze in Karlsruhe is said to have borne a Crozatier signature, which was subsequently removed shortly thereafter (letter P. Wengraf, 21 December 1993). Referring to the Parisian sculptor and bronze founder Charles Crozatier (1795-1855), an artist renowned for his bronze replicas and pastiches of old sculpture active during the Second Empire. Crozatier’s oeuvre included works after sculptors such as Giambologna, Algardi, Puget, Lepautre, Coustou, Clodion and Dardel.⁸⁸Information obtained from an information sheet at the Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay. My thanks to François-Xavier Amprimoz (Musée Crozatier). In addition, he devised eclectic compositions by combining parts of existing objects, e.g. candelabras, torchères and bronze pendules. Crozatier regularly supplied works to the French court but also prestigious clients abroad, including the English royal house, the Duke of Sutherland and Prince Torlonia.⁹⁹See D. Alcoffe et al., L’Art en France sous le Second Empire, exh. cat. Paris (Grand Palais) 1979, p. 151 and no. 151.

Access to Adriaen de Vries’s original Hercules, Nessus and Deianeira in the French royal collection was likely obtained through his contacts with the Mobilier de la Couronne. Given the observable differences in facture among the various bronzes, Crozatier’s foundry was very unlikely responsible for every replica. Two of the cited works, including the bronze in the Musée Lambinet (Versailles),¹⁰¹⁰The other formerly belonging to the Robert de Balkany collection, sale Paris (Sotheby’s), 20 September 2016, no. 8. bear the founder’s mark of Victor Paillard, who perhaps obtained the casting moulds of the Hercules, Nessus and Deianeira following Crozatier’s death in 1855 and continued producing these works for some time.

De Vries made the original group of Hercules, Nessus en Deianeira for Emperor Rudolph II in Prague. In 1602, the emperor expressed his desire for two works cast in silver by the Dutch sculptor Hubert Gerhard (c. 1540/50-before 1621), who resided at this time in Innsbruck, working in the service of Rudolph’s younger brother, Archduke Maximilian III of Tirol. This imperial request was granted in the very same year, as a message received from Prague on 1 August of that same year confirmed that the two works by Gerhard had been received. Particularly intriguing is the emperor’s personal, critical commentary regarding one of these works: ‘the work on it is subtle and pure, only the positioning of the figures was somewhat poor, the Master Adriaen as Ir. Mt. sculpture founder does the same much better […].’¹¹¹¹die arbeit daran sey subtil und sauber, allein die stöllung derselben, wären etwas schlecht, der Meister Adrian alss Ir. Mt. bildgiesser mach dieselb umb ein grosses besser... Schönach 1906, pp. 379-80. Rudolph’s words clearly betray an element of competition between the two art-loving brothers and collectors. At the same time, however, he also sends an implicit appeal to his own Meister Adrian (Adriaen de Vries), that he may surpass Gerhard’s work, in which the stöllung (the positioning of the figures) was apparently unsatisfactory.

In August 1604, Rudolph II requested a sculpture by Gerhard once again, this time in bronze and allowing the sculptor to freely choose the subject. It was not until October 1605 that this work was delivered to the imperial court. Upon receiving it, the emperor’s response was that he already possessed a larger bronze of the same subject.¹²¹²J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, pp. 206-07, which quotes from Philip Lang’s letter of 24 October 1605 addressed to Archduke Maximilian. In this letter, Lang describes the emperor’s response: Dieweil aber Ir Mt. ain anders in gleichen form (allein das selbiges wass grösser ist) beyhanden, alss kenden dieselbigen nicht aigentlich wissen, Ob E. Fr. Drt. selbigen gleichfalss gesehen, und darnach habeen formieren lassen, doch seind Ire Mtt. damit wohlgefellig zufrieden. There is no doubt that the bronze Hercules, Nessus and Deianeira today preserved in Vienna is Gerhard’s bronze from the commission of 1604-05.¹³¹³G. Ammann et al., Ruhm und Sinnlichkeit, Innsbrucker Bronzeguss 1500-1650: Von Maximilian I. bis Erzherzog Ferdinand Karl, exh. cat. Innsbruck (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum) 1996, no. 73; J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, no. 21. In all probability, the work to which Rudolph was referring – a bronze having the same theme, held in the imperial collection by this time, and somewhat larger than Gerhard’s piece – is Adriaen de Vries’s version today preserved in the Louvre, which indeed measures 24 centimetres higher.¹⁴¹⁴J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, no. 20. The same group is mentioned in Rudolph II’s 1607-11 Kunstkammer inventory, recorded as standing next to Gerhard’s version and thus inviting a visual comparison between the two works.¹⁵¹⁵R. Bauer and H. Haupt, ‘Das Kunstkammerinventar Kaiser Rudolfs. II, 1607-1611’, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 72 (1976), pp. 1-191, esp. nos. 1890 and 1892; J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, p. 206.

The two sculptures may have indeed arisen as a result of a certain artistic competition, whether directly or indirectly engineered by the emperor himself.¹⁶¹⁶L.O. Larsson, ‘Bildahuerkunst und Plastik am Hofe Rudolf II.’, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 1 (1982), pp. 211-35, esp. pp. 227-28; J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, p. 208. The most likely chain of events is that Gerhard created his work in response to De Vries’s superior sculpture, as perhaps suggested in Lang’s letter from 1605: ...alss kenden dieselbigen nicht aigentlich wissen, Ob E. Fr. Drt. selbigen gleichfalss gesehen, und darnach habeen formieren lassen.¹⁷¹⁷L.O. Larsson, ‘Bildahuerkunst und Plastik am Hofe Rudolf II.’, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 1 (1982), pp. 211-35, esp. pp. 227-28; J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, p. 208. Regardless of how events transpired, De Vries’s bronze is not only larger, but more importantly, more dynamic in its composition and more fluid in its movement when compared to Gerhard’s rendition. With De Vries, Deianeira is physically lifted from the ground, as opposed to Gerhard’s figure, who appears as if suspended in Hercules’s arms.

De Vries’s composition – like Gerhard’s – is indebted to his Florentine teacher, Giambologna. Without question, Giambologna’s marble Rape of the Sabines from 1581-82 (Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi), together with small-scale variants thereof, unmistakably formed the starting point for three-figure compositions of this kind. Unlike his teacher, however, De Vries introduced the twisting motion as the compositional axis of his work. Modified as such, the composition no longer functions in the round. Nevertheless, in De Vries’s work the reverse obtains a significance all its own, thanks to his effective use of the centaur. The floored figure of Nessus, bent over backwards, introduces a marked, almost baroque tension. Extraordinarily successful is the combination of the horse’s muscled body and his exalted, absent gaze.

In a letter to the emperor, inevitably written in the years 1607-08, De Vries mentions a Herculo dianira Centauro made six years earlier and for which the sculptor was as yet to receive 450 taler. On this basis, the original group must be dated circa 1602-03.¹⁸¹⁸L.O. Larsson, Adrian de Vries: Adrianus Fries hagiensis Batavus 1545-1626, Vienna/Munich 1967, p. 34.

Frits Scholten, 2024

S. de Ricci, Exposition d’objets d’art du moyen âge et de la Renaissance […] à l’ancien hôtel de Sagan, Paris 1913, plate 28; J. Pope-Hennessy, T.W.I. Hodgkinson and A.F. Radcliffe (eds.), The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue, vol. 4, Sculpture: German, Netherlandish, French and British, coll. cat. New York 1970, p. 40ff.; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 207, with earlier literature; E. Petrasch (ed.), 400 ausgewählte Werke aus den Schausammlungen: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, coll. cat. Karlsruhe (Badisches Landesmuseum) 1976, under no. 220; P.C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America, Grand Rapids/Kampen 1986, fig. 176; J. Schultze and H. Fillitz, Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II., exh. cat. Essen (Villa Hügel)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1988, no. 62; R. Ward and P.J. Fidler (eds.), The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, coll. cat. Kansas City 1993, p. 159; F. Scholten et al., Adriaen de Vries 1556-1626: Imperial Sculptor, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Stockholm (Nationalmuseum)/Los Angeles (The J. Paul Getty Museum) 1998-2000, no. 15a; S. Castelluccio et al., Les bronzes de la Couronne, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 1999, p. 172, no. 301; F. Scholten et al., Het wonder van Adriaen de Vries: Van ons allemaal sinds 2004, The Hague 2015, pp. 30, 44; P. Wengraf, ‘The Louvre’s Hercules and Deianeira with Nessus: A Later Adaptation after Adriaen de Vries’s Theseus and Antiope in the Royal Collection, Windsor’, in C.H. Miner (ed.), The Eternal Baroque: Studies in Honour of Jennifer Montagu, Milan 2015, pp. 119-28, esp. p. 126; J.L. Burk et al., Bella Figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 2015, p. 208

F. Scholten, 2024, 'Charles Crozatier and after Adriaen de Vries, Hercules, Nessus and Deianeira, Paris, c. 1845 - c. 1850', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24492