Panel, honestone, carved in low relief. Romulus and Remus taken from their mother Rhea Sylvia, by Loy Herring, Franconian (Eichstätt); ca. 1532-35

The subject depicted is the abduction of Romulus and Remus from their mother Rhea Sylvia, who stands in the foreground. A male figure carries off the children in his arms. According to the legend, the twins were to be drowned in the river Tiber by order of Rhea Silvia's brother Amulius, in the hope of preventing them from inheriting the kingdom of their grandfather King Numitor of Alba Longa (Grimal 1995, p. 407). Rhea Sylvia, her long hair streaming down behind her, turns her head away in a mourning pose, wringing her hands. In the background is a city in a landscape. An inscribed cartouche is set at an angle at the top left: "ESA: 14/ QUOD. D[omi]N[u])S. / EXERCITITVV[m] (for exercituum) DECR/E VIT. q's. (quis) DISSIPABIT./ RHEA. ROMVLUS, REMVS." (Isaiah XIV, 27: Dominum enim exercituum decrevit: et quis poterit infirmare? (Who shall annul the Lord's decree, who shall thwart it? Rhea. Romulus. Remus). The composition is based on an engraving by Heinrich Aldegrever, usually dated 1532 (Hollstein 1998, p. 77, no. 66). In contrast to the engraving, the scale of the figure of Rhea Sylvia is reduced, the foreground with tufts of grass and pebbles is much simplified; the figure of Faustulus is omitted, and the wide moulded panel of Aldegrever's inscription replaced by a simple square cartouche. An integral bevelled frame borders the top and two sides of the relief.
The thin stone relief is mounted on slate. Cracked and repaired on the left hand side.

The present relief was acquired as South German, early sixteenth century, and was tentatively attributed by Josephi (1910, p. 37) to Loy Hering, an ascription followed by all other authors, except Sauerlandt (1927, p. 80) who ascribed it to an "unknown Master of about 1535". Cannon-Brookes (1971, pp. 48-9) and Smith (1994, p. 296, p. 476, note 78) prefer an attribution to Thomas Hering (b. about 1510, d. 1549), Loy's eldest son, and remark on the close affinity of this piece to his signed relief of the Judgement of Paris of about 1535 in the Skulpturensammlung in Berlin (Smith 1994, fig. 226). Smith (ibid., p. 377) dates the present piece to about 1535-40. However, Thomas Hering's relief is more closely related to Loy Hering's signed Garden of Love of about 1525 (Reindl 1977, A. 38, fig. p. 310), which exhibits the same facial features and also includes a tablet with the monogram hanging from a branch of a tree. The figures in 4888-1858 are more sophisticated than those in the Garden of Love, and their distinctive physiognomies are closer to the relief of Adam and Eve (cat. no. 21) whose ascription to Loy Hering has never been doubted. Smith's later date implies that the present relief was carved at about the same time as the roundels depicting the Labours of Hercules in the Italian Hall of the Stadtresidenz in Landshut (Smith 1994, fig, 215-6), which are documented as by Thomas Hering and dating from 1540-3. The roundels however are in an altogether different style.
Provenance: Bought in London for £60 (vendor unknown) in 1858.

The relief was reproduced in a number of copies in bronze (for the most recent list see Reindl 1977, pp. 330-32). Weihrauch (1956, pp. 56-57) pointed out the discrepancies between the bronzes and 4488-1858, and argued that their technique and stylistic modifications suggest that the bronzes were freehand copies made at the time of the Dürer revival in around 1600. Weber (1975, p. 328) noted that the discrepancies might be explained by lost intermediary models more closely based on the present relief.

Franconian

This composition in stone is based on an engraving of about 1532 by Heinrich Aldegrever. It shows the infant founders of Rome abducted from their mother on the orders of their great-uncle so they would not inherit their grandfather’s kingdom. The subject is given a Christian interpretation by the inscription.

4888-1858