- Museum number
- 1895,0915.782
- Description
-
Hercules wrestling with Antaeus
Brush drawing in brown ink, heightened with white, on yellow-brown prepared paper
- Production date
- 1446-1506
- Dimensions
-
Height: 280 millimetres
-
Width: 192 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Lit.: J.C. Robinson, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq', London, 1876, no. 335 (as Ercole Grandi); A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries', London, 1950, I, no. 162, II, pl. CXLIX (with previous literature); D. Ekserdjian, in exhib. cat., London, Royal Academy and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Andrea Mantegna', 1992, no. 95, p. 317
Popham & Pouncey 1950
The figures correspond exactly with those in an engraving of the School of Mantegna (B. xiii, p. 237, 16) and are in the same direction. The drapery differs in detail, and the engraving includes a tree and an inscription: "DIVO HERCVLI INVICTO".
In spite of the close correspondence with the engraving, the drawing is certainly not a copy of it; nor, on the other hand, did the engraver use this drawing. They must be independent versions of the same Mantegna original. Though the drawing is similar in style and technique to that of 'Hercules and the Lion' at Christ Church (Colvin, 'Oxford Drawings', ii, pl. 28; Bell, 'Christ Church Drawings', pl. LXVIII), and may be by the same artist, it is different in scale and therefore not likely to be en suite with it. The Christ Church drawing seems to be the original from which Giovanni Antonio da Brescia made his engraving (B. xiii, p. 323, 11).
Literature: JCR 335; Hind, B.M., pp. 350 f., under no. 9; the same, v, p. 25, under no. 17.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1992 Jan-April, London, Royal Academy, 'Andrea Mantegna', no. 95
1992 May-July, New York, Met Mus of Art, 'Andrea Mantegna', no. 95
1996, BM, Malcolm Drawings, apx.
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.782