Hercules fights the Trojans
| Reference: | S46686 |
| Author | Hans Sebald BEHAM |
| Year: | 1545 |
| Measures: | 79 x 52 mm |
€900.00
| Reference: | S46686 |
| Author | Hans Sebald BEHAM |
| Year: | 1545 |
| Measures: | 79 x 52 mm |
€900.00
Description
Hercules fighting the Trojans; Hercules on horseback at right, in profile to left, holding an uprooted tree; at left a Trojan on horseback aiming at Hercules with a large arrow; various figures in background and a fallen warrior and a horse on the ground; from a series of twelve engravings called The Labours of Hercules.
Engraving, 1545, signed with monogram at lower right and dated at lower left. Lettered at upper centre: 'HERCULES MULTIS BELLIS LACESSIT TROIAM'.
“The tradition of Hercules as a subject for art had revived in Italy and flourished in the north a generation before Sebald engraved his prints. Retold by writers like Boccacio and allegorized by humanists like Badius and Regius, the tale of Hercules was dusted off and polished up along with the rest of classical heritage. Publishing the story of Hercules as a classical prefiguration of Christianity, much as the story of Samson was interpreted, made the myth an acceptable topic, and the sheer potency of the hero made him an obvious choice as an emblem of heroism. In fact, from the time of Philip the Good to that of Henry II of France, Hercules was claimed as ancestor and epitome of one royal house after another: a typos of both physical and moral strength. Dürer's Choice of Hercules (B. 73) is a famous example of the tradition of the moralized Hercules which fits in well with the iconographic campaign of his patron, Maxmilian I. […] The tales of Hercules are often divided into three parts: the aerumnae, or twelve labors, the parerga, those auxiliary adventures that divert the hero between and after the labors, and the praxeis, the events leading up to his death. In spite of what appears to be a title print bearing the legend "Aerumnae Herculis" (P. 98), Beham's selections from the life of Hercules include only three of the traditional labors: Hercules strangling the Nemean lion, killing the Lernean hydra, and dragging Cerberus up from the underworld. Of the remaining prints, four of the scenes are parerga that are usually presented as happening between the labors. The final five prints of the series depict events of the praxeis” (cf. A. Stevens in “The World in Miniature. Engravings by the German Little Masters 1500-1550” pp. 109-113).
Shortly before 1520, some young artists in Albercht Dürer's circle took to making very small engravings that challenged the viewer with a miniature world of new secular subject matter and unconventional interpretations of traditional themes. Because of the small size of their engravings, these artists have long been affixed with the collective, and unflattering, name of Small Nuremberg Masters. The core of the group consists of three artists from Nuremberg, Hans Sebald & Bartel Beham and Georg Pencz, and in addition Jacob Bink from Cologne and Heinrich Aldegrever from Soest.
A fine impression of the third state, printed on contemporary laid paper, with thin margins, in good conditions.
Bibliografia
Pauli 1901-11, Hans Sebald Beham: Ein Kritisches Verzeichniss seiner Kupferstiche Radirungen und Holzschnitte (105.III); Hollstein, German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700 (105.II); Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur (VIII.157.101); The World in Miniature. Engravings by the German Little Masters 1500-1550” pp. 109-113.
Hans Sebald BEHAM Nuremberg 1500 - Frankfurt 1550
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Engraver, etcher, designer of woodcuts and stained glass, painter and illustrator. In contemporary documents and prints he was nearly always identified as Sebald Beham although since the 17th century (Sandrart) and into the early years of the 20th he has mistakenly been called Hans Sebald Beham on the basis of his monogram: HSP or HSB. This reflects S[ebald] Peham/Beham with the P (Nuremberg pronunciation) changing to B c. 1531, when he appears to have moved to Frankfurt. Sandrart’s biography of him is illustrated with a printed portrait similar to Sebald’s painted Self-portrait in his David panel in the Louvre; around the Sandrart portrait is an inscription identifying him as painter and engraver. Only one of Sebald’s panel paintings has survived (the Story of David, 1534; Paris, Louvre), though documents cited by Hampe and Vogler refer to him as a journeyman for painting in 1521 and as having his own journeyman—i.e. running a workshop—in 1525. Sebald is best known to posterity, however, for his prints, of which he produced a prodigious quantity: approximately 252 engravings, 18 etchings and 1500 woodcuts, including woodcut book illustrations. Biographical information is scanty: Sandrart alleged that he was trained by Barthel and opened a tavern, the bad reputation of which derived from his own dissolute life. Unquestionably, however, he was industrious and meticulous artistically. He began producing prints in quantity in 1519, though a few date to before then: a woodcut of Lust from a series of the Ten Commandments—a youthfully naive work produced in 1512 when Sebald was 12—and a sheet of sometimes awkwardly drawn pen-and-ink studies of male and female heads on red prepared paper (1518; Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Mus.). His first engraving, dated 1518, is a diminutive Portrait of a Young Woman.
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Hans Sebald BEHAM Nuremberg 1500 - Frankfurt 1550
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Engraver, etcher, designer of woodcuts and stained glass, painter and illustrator. In contemporary documents and prints he was nearly always identified as Sebald Beham although since the 17th century (Sandrart) and into the early years of the 20th he has mistakenly been called Hans Sebald Beham on the basis of his monogram: HSP or HSB. This reflects S[ebald] Peham/Beham with the P (Nuremberg pronunciation) changing to B c. 1531, when he appears to have moved to Frankfurt. Sandrart’s biography of him is illustrated with a printed portrait similar to Sebald’s painted Self-portrait in his David panel in the Louvre; around the Sandrart portrait is an inscription identifying him as painter and engraver. Only one of Sebald’s panel paintings has survived (the Story of David, 1534; Paris, Louvre), though documents cited by Hampe and Vogler refer to him as a journeyman for painting in 1521 and as having his own journeyman—i.e. running a workshop—in 1525. Sebald is best known to posterity, however, for his prints, of which he produced a prodigious quantity: approximately 252 engravings, 18 etchings and 1500 woodcuts, including woodcut book illustrations. Biographical information is scanty: Sandrart alleged that he was trained by Barthel and opened a tavern, the bad reputation of which derived from his own dissolute life. Unquestionably, however, he was industrious and meticulous artistically. He began producing prints in quantity in 1519, though a few date to before then: a woodcut of Lust from a series of the Ten Commandments—a youthfully naive work produced in 1512 when Sebald was 12—and a sheet of sometimes awkwardly drawn pen-and-ink studies of male and female heads on red prepared paper (1518; Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Mus.). His first engraving, dated 1518, is a diminutive Portrait of a Young Woman.
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