Lot 34: A BRONZE GROUP OF HERCULES AND THE CENTAUR NETHERLANDISH, THIRD QUARTER 16TH CENTURY, BY WILLEM DANIELSZ VAN TETRODE

(C. 1525-BETWEEN 1575 AND 1588), KNOWN AS GUGLIELMO FIAMMINGO Hercules with a cloth draped across his loins, his arms raised above his head holding a club as he pins down the centaur Eurytion about to club him, the centaur screaming in anguish his left arm stretched out to push Hercules away, in his right hand he too holds a club 18 3/4 in. high (47.5 cm.); with metal base. LITERATURE Anthony Radcliffe, Netherlandish Mannerism, Schardt, Tetrode, and some Possible Sculptural Sources of Goltzius', Stockholm, 1985, p. 104, fig. 9 Comparative LITERATURE Charles Avery, Anthony Radcliffe and Manfred Leithe-Jasper, Giambologna, 1529-1608, Ein Wendepunkt der Europaischen Plastik, Vienna, 1978, pp. 179-181, cat. no. 87b Jaap Leeuwenberg and Willy Halsema-Kubes. Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1973, 167, figs. 200 and 844 Anthony Radcliffe, The Robert H. Smith Collection, Bronzes 1500-1650, London, 1994, pp. 135-139 The present bronze was ascribed to the Netherlandish sculptor, Tetrode, in an article by Anthony Radcliffe (op.cit.) where he compares it closely with the bronze group of Hercules and Antaeus by Tetrode, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Avery, Radcliffe and Leithe-Jasper (op.cit.) and also a bronze figure of a nude warrior in the Rijksmuseum, (op.cit.) formerly and implausibly attributed to the Italian eighteenth century sculptor, Lorenzo Mattielli. Note the close similarity in the face of both the warrior and the centaur with the long, curly hair and drooping moustache and Hercules's strong musculature comparable to the figure of the Hercules Pomarius, from Delft, circa 1568-1573, now in the Robert Smith Collection, see Radcliffe (op.cit.). In the inventory of the Delft goldsmith Thomas Cruse of 1624 sculptures and moulds by Tetrode are mentioned, including a reference to the model of the Hercules Pomarius (op. cit.). Equally, Radcliffe refers to Aernout van Buchel who noted in his diary in 1598 that he saw in the bedroom of the painter turned brewer Apert Francen, in Delft, many bronzes by Tetrode, see G. Hoogewerff and J. van Regteren Altena, Arnoldus Buchelius, "Res Pictoriae", The Hague, 1928, p. 41. It therefore seems probable that the present group is contemporary with the bronze figure of Hercules Pomarius. In the inventory Guglielmo Fiammingo, who is known from a contemporary document to have borne the patronymic "q. Danielis", was the Delft born sculptor Willem Danielsz. van Tetrode, who worked in Italy, see M. Devigne, "Le Sculpteur Willem Danielsz. van Tetrode, dit en Italie Guglielmo Fiammingo", Oud-Holland, LVI, 1939, pp. 89-96. He is first recorded in Florence working as an assistant in the workshop of Benvenuto Cellini in 1549. This is confirmed by a letter written by him to Cosimo I on 25th June 1562, in which he claims responsibility for Cellini's "Ganymede", see' G. Gaye, Carteggio Inedito d'Artisti Italian, III, Florence, 1840, p. 69. He later worked in Rome, possibly for Guglielmo della Porta and again possibly in Florence from 1562, working for Cosimo I. However, by 1568 he had returned to Delft, where he provided a new high altar with twenty-four statues for the Oude Kerk, dismantled in 1574 when the church was reformed. In 1574-5 he was in Cologne in the sevice of the Archbishop Elector, after which there is no record of him but it is known that he must have died before 1588, when his brother-in-law noted that he had probably died abroad. For a detailed account of his life see J. Nijstad. "Willem Danielsz. van Tetrode", Nederlands Kunstistorisch Jaarboek. XXVII. 1986. pp. 259-279.