HERCULES AND NESSUS
Artist Antonio Susini
Florence 1580 – 1624 Florence Giovanni da Bologna (after) Douai 1529 – 1608 Florence
Date ca. 1600
Object type sculpture Medium, technique bronze
Dimensions 37 × 28.5 × 23 cm
with base: 53 × 30 × 26.5 cm Inventory number 5356
Collection Sculptures
On view Museum of Fine Arts, First Floor, European Art 1250-1600, Gallery XVIII
Between 1576 and 1589 Giambologna executed six silver statuettes depicting the labours of Hercules as a commission for Ferdinando I, grand duke of Turscany. Although the works did not survive, the sculptor carved the composition
of Hercules and Nessus in marble, which still stands at its original site at the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. The popularity of the statue is shown by the small bronzes that Giambologna’s students cast after it with slight alterations. The finely
chiselled, high-quality statuette in Budapest belongs to the earliest casts after Giambologna’s original composition and it can be linked to the master’s close associate, the excellent bronzecaster Antonio Susini.
References
Petrovics, Elek – Meller, Simon, Ferenczy István bronzgyüjteményének kiállítása, Országos Magyar Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1917, p. 14.
Balogh, Jolán, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der bildenden Künste in Budapest, IV – XVIII.
Jahrhundert: 1. Textband Bd. 1, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1975, p. 130-131., no. 166.
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