Hercules Pomarius

Entry

Willem van Tetrode modelled this Hercules Pomarius after the famous Farnese Hercules, a classical marble colossus, then displayed in the Palazzo Farnese (Rome).³ Unlike the marble, which shows the hero at rest, Tetrode transformed his Hercules into a dynamic giant on a small scale. He gave the figure a tense pose, with outstretched legs, a slightly lifted back foot and averted face, which creates a strong suggestion of movement. This dynamism is further strengthened by the abundance of muscles that make Hercules a virtual muscleman, although with an almost anatomically correct musculature. The use of exaggerated muscles as a style device is not limited to the Hercules Pomarius; Tetrode’s Hercules and Antaeus in the Victoria and Albert Museum and his Mercury in the Bargello reveal a similar fascination with musculature.⁴

The Hercules Pomarius was Tetrode’s most successful invention, as the number of surviving examples, entries in inventories and workings of it by various artists prove. The tactile nature of the statue has certainly contributed to its success; for collectors of statuettes, accustomed to holding their sculptures in their hands, the feel of a bronze with such smooth curves was a pleasant, sensually stimulating experience.

There are four known examples of this bronze, of which the Hercules in the Rijksmuseum is the best cast.⁵ In addition there is a quite crude copy dating from the middle of the seventeenth century by the Brussels bronze caster Caspar von Turkelsteyn (1579-in or after 1648).⁶ The four examples differ hardly at all in pose, size and manufacture, an indication that they date from the same period and were cast from the same mould. This may have happened after van Tetrode’s return from Italy when the sculptor settled in Delft (1567-1572), his place of birth, or later, during his stay in Cologne (1572-1580). The fact that Hercules enjoyed a degree of popularity in the Netherlands, as is shown by the appearance of the model in paintings and prints,⁷ points to this. A sketch by Pieter de Jode (1573-1634), one of Hendrick Goltzius’s (1558-1617) assistants in the years 1585-1590, shows that there must have been an aftercast of the statue in Goltzius’s workshop.⁸ This is also evidenced by the different reworkings of the Hercules in Goltzius’s graphic work at this time. The association with Goltzius that Leeuwenberg observed in 1955 was one of the reasons for Radcliffe to attribute the bronze to Tetrode.⁹ He pointed out that the inventory of the Delft silversmith Cruse in 1624 listed 1 form van den groten Hercules van W. Tettero (1 mould of the large Hercules by W. Tettero), while a print by Goltzius with a very similar Hercules Pomarius (The Great Hercules, RP-P-OB-10.405) was described in the same terms. More important still for the attribution to Tetrode was Radcliffe’s discovery that there is considerable similarity in musculature and facial features between the Hercules Pomarius and two bronze copies of the Farnese Hercules in the Bargello.¹⁰ The two copies stem from the Pitigliano scrittoio, a large display cabinet that Tetrode made for Niccolò Orsini, Count of Pitigliano, in 1559.¹¹

We do not know when Van Tetrode modelled his Hercules Pomarius. The model probably came into being during his stay in Italy. We can infer this from the stylistic and technical relationships with his Hercules and Antaeus group in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which derive from Bartolomeo Ammannati’s example and accordingly would have been created in or shortly after 1562, when Tetrode was in Florence.¹² Italian influences can also be seen in the pose of the Hercules Pomarius, because related movement motifs and poses occur in drawings by Domenico Beccafumi, Leonardo da Vinci,¹³ and in a Hercules on the ceiling fresco by Federico Zuccaro in the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola (Sala di Ercole). There is a very direct parallel in an anonymous lead plaquette depicting Hercules and the Hydra in the Bargello.¹⁴ This is attributed to an artist who worked in the style of Leone Leoni and is dated to the second half of the sixteenth century. It is unclear if it was Tetrode’s statuette that was the example for the plaquette or the other way round. The exaggerated proportions and overinflated muscles of the bronze Hercules, which are often considered as a typically northern, non-classical feature, are also in the Italian tradition – they are characteristic of the genre of colossi that was just making a comeback in Tetrode’s time.¹⁵ His bronze can therefore be described as a pocket-sized colossus.

Frits Scholten, 2024
This entry was originally published in F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 32