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On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar

Roundel
ca. 1480 (made)
Artist/Maker
Antico Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi
Antico (Pier Jacopo Di Antonio Alari-Bonacolsi) (sculptor)
Place of origin
Italy (made)

This bronze roundel is decorated in relief with an image of Hercules carrying the Erymanthian boar. Hercules was ordered to kill the Erymanthian Boar as the fourth of his twelve Labours. This relief as well as its pendant, 'The Infant Hercules and the Serpents' (58-1881), together with that of 'Hercules and the Ceryneian Stag' in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, may be identified as the three bronze roundels listed in the inventory of Ferdinando Gonzaga's collection, prepared in 1627.
Antico (Pier Jacopo di Antonio Alari-Bonacolsi, ca. 1460-1528) was an Italian sculptor and goldsmith. He was nick-named Antico, because in his work he related heavily to Antiquity. He re-created small scale statuettes of famous antique examples. He was active at the Gonzaga court at Mantua and made many bronzes for the court, notably for Ludovico, Bishop of Mantua and Isabella d’Este, wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, 4th Marchese of Mantua. He was also a restorer of antique statues and an adviser to art collectors.

Object details

Categories
Medallions
Myths & Legends
Sculpture
Object type
Roundel
TitleHercules and the Erymanthian Boar (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Bronze
Bronze
Brief description
Medallion, bronze, Hercules and Erymanthian boar, by Antico, Italy (Mantua), ca. 1480
Physical description
Roundel. Bronze, decorated in relief with Hercules carrying the Erymanthian boar. This object was probably the work of the celebrated medallist Sperandio, and may have been part of a set illustrating the Labours of Hercules. In a wooden frame covered with carved foliage in high relief.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 32.7cm
  • Depth: 3cm
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Gallery label
BRONZE ROUNDELS, About 1480
Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, called Antico (about 1455-1528)

These roundels may have been made
for a study belonging to a member of the Gonzaga family in Mantua. They show scenes from the Greek legend of Hercules, who was the personification of strength and therefore a popular subject.
Left, the infant Hercules strangles
poisonous snakes sent to kill him by
the goddess Juno, who flies overhead
in a chariot drawn by peacocks. Right, Hercules has captured the fierce boar
that terrorised Mount Erymanthus.

Left
The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents
Museum no. 58-1881

Right
Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar
Museum no. 149-1882

Italy, Mantua,
Bronze
Object history
Purchased in London (R. Pinti, for £1000).
Subjects depicted
Wild Boar
Hercules
Summary
This bronze roundel is decorated in relief with an image of Hercules carrying the Erymanthian boar. Hercules was ordered to kill the Erymanthian Boar as the fourth of his twelve Labours. This relief as well as its pendant, 'The Infant Hercules and the Serpents' (58-1881), together with that of 'Hercules and the Ceryneian Stag' in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, may be identified as the three bronze roundels listed in the inventory of Ferdinando Gonzaga's collection, prepared in 1627.
Antico (Pier Jacopo di Antonio Alari-Bonacolsi, ca. 1460-1528) was an Italian sculptor and goldsmith. He was nick-named Antico, because in his work he related heavily to Antiquity. He re-created small scale statuettes of famous antique examples. He was active at the Gonzaga court at Mantua and made many bronzes for the court, notably for Ludovico, Bishop of Mantua and Isabella d’Este, wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, 4th Marchese of Mantua. He was also a restorer of antique statues and an adviser to art collectors.
Associated object
58-1881 (Set)
Bibliographic references
  • List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington Museum acquired during the Year 1882. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1883. pp. 14
  • Pope-Hennessy, John, assisted by Lightbown, Ronald, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO 1964 (3 volumes), vol. 1, pp. 322-3.
  • Raggio, Olga, 'Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum' in Art Bulletin 1968, vol.L. pp. 101
  • Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille, Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, Frankfurt: Liebieghaus - Museum Alter Plastik, 1985, cat. 95
  • Hermann, Julius Hermann, ‘Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsi, gennant Antico’ in Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 1883-1918, n. 28 (1909/1910), pp. 201-88, esp. p. 271.
  • Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, vol.X/1, 'La scultura del Cinquecento', Milan, 1935, p. 301.
  • Berger, A., 'Inventar der Kunstsammlung des Erzherzogs Leopold Wilhelm von Oesterreich', in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 1883, vol. 1, pp. CLXIX, no. 120.
  • Molinier, Émile, Les Plaquettes: les bronzes de la Renaissance, Paris, 1886, vol. 2, pp. 82-3, cats. 486-89.
  • Planiscig, L. Die Estensische Kunstsammlung, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 1919, vol. 1, pp. 120-2, cats. 183-4.
  • Planiscig, L. Die Bronzeplastiken, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1924, n. 106.
  • Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900 London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1930. pp. 403-4.
  • Leithe-Jasper, Manfred, 'Renaissance Bronzes and the Vienna Collection' in Renaissance Master Bronzes from the Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1986. pp. 81-4
  • Allison, Ann Hersey, The Bronzes of Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsi Antico, Vienna: Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, 1994, pp. 45, 66, 105-6.
  • Dieter, Blume, 'Anticos Antike' in Städel Jahr-buch, 1987, vol. 2, pp. 179-204.
  • Bauer, Rotraud, Zu Gast in der Kunstkammer : eine Ausstellung anläslich des einhundertjä̈hrigen Bestehens des Kunsthistorischen Museums, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, 1991, cat. 2b.
  • Baliszewski, Mikolaj (ed), Przebudzeni: Ruiny antyku i narodziny włoskiego renesansu, Zamek Królewski w Warszawie Muzeum, 2023, cat. 128.
Collection
Sculpture Collection
Accession number
149-1882

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Record createdJuly 16, 2008
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O163674/hercules-and-the-erymanthian-boar-roundel-antico-pier-jacopo/
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