Hercules and Telephos

Engraving, 1592 circa, signed in plate, lower left corner: HGoltzius sculpt. Cum privil / Sa. Ca. M Address in plate, right corner: Herman Adolfz excud. Haerleman Captioned on pedestal, lower center: HERCVLES [...] / Inscript’ Roman COMDVS IMPERATOR Two Latin distichs by Theodorus Schrevelius in margin, lower left and right: Telamonis autam victor Alcides subl, / Telamone natum Fovi, et Aiacem sinu / Spotijs teonis implicans votum dedi, / cut fata corpus vulnere intactum darent. Two lines of Latin in margin, center: Statua antiqua Roma in palatio Pontifias belle vider, / opus posthumum. HGoltzy iam primum divulgatum Ano. M.D.C.XVII. Signed in plate in margin, lower right: Schreve.

Example in its second, final, state.

Very good example, printed on laid paper, thin margins, very good condition. Later issue, on late XVII century paper.

Goltzius was praised throughout Europe during his lifetime as an extraordinary imitative artist who could observe, copy, and then surpass the works of his forebears and contemporaries. On a trip to Rome in 1591, Goltzius executed more than forty chalk drawings after celebrated antique statues that he saw in the Vatican and in other collections. Upon his return to Haarlem, he intended to engrave these as a series; however, only three were ultimately published after the artist’s death by Herman Adolfsz, who had bought the plates from the estate: The Farnese Hercules, Hercules and Telephos and Apollo Belvedere.

Hirschmann concluded that Goltzius had cut the plates in circa 1604 but never printed them. Rejecting an earlier date, Hirschmann pointed out that van Mander would certainly have mentioned these large engravings in the “Schilderboek” (1604) if they had at the time been printed. But Reznicek proposed the more likely date of 1592, after the artist's return from Italy, noting that the technique is closely akin to that of the series of Nine Muses (1592).

It is possible that Goltzius planned a more extensive series of large engravings of antique statues and therefore withheld these three initial sheets from publication. Reznicek remarked that the poor quality of the then existing collections of engravings of antique statues may have prompted Goltzius to prepare his own portfolio of sketches while in Rome. Why the series was not completed is not known.
All three engravings include verses in the lower margin by the Neo-Latin poet and rector of the Latin School of Leiden, Theodorus Schrevelius (1572-1649).

Through the controlled network of swelling and tapering lines interspersed with dots, Goltzius uses his virtuoso technique to transmit both the mass and the luminosity of polished marble.

The statue of Hercules and Telephos is a Roman copy or adaptation of a Greek original (bronze) of the fourth century B.C. The over-lifesize statue (2.12m) shows Hercules wearing his lion skin, supporting a child on his left arm. The statue was discovered in Rome in the Campo dei Fiori on 15 May 1507. The pope, Julius II, immediately had the piece taken to the Belvedere courtyard (Vatican Museums), where it took its place near the entrance. It was removed from the Belvedere for Napoleon and sent to France in 1798. Upon its return in 1816, it was not restored to its niche in the Belvedere but was soon set up in the Sala Rotonda of the Vatican, where it may be seen today The statue was demoted from the Belvedere as a result of a decline in popularity. At the time of its discovery, it was a rare example of ancient monumental statuary in extremely good condition. Adding to interest in Tommaso Inghirami, prefect of the Vatican Library, identified the statue as the sensationally profligate emperor Commodus. Boissard later reported the idea that the child was Commodus's minion. Winckelmann argued that the statue showed Hercules with the child Ajax, while E. Q. Visconti interpreted the pair as Hercules with his son Telephus, an identification that has stood the test of time.