Austrian, probably Vienna, third quarter 17th century | Hercules fighting the Nemean Lion

The composition of this remarkable statuette of Hercules and the Nemean Lion is derived from late Mannerist representations, such as the ivory group by Georg Petel of circa 1624 (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, inv. no. R 4721), which shows the hero in a similar pose, tearing open the beast’s jaws. An even closer parallel may be drawn with the ivory statuette of the same subject by the Austrian sculptor Balthasar Griessmann in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. No. KK 4552), dated to the 1670s. Its protagonist is, as here, kneeling vigorously atop the lion and gazing at his opponent with a determined frown and bared teeth. Stylistically, too, the present group relates to Griessmann’s work, particularly in the figure’s broad anatomy with strongly articulated veins, as well as its facial type, which merits further comparison to the Saint Roch in a relief by Griessmann from the Rainer Winkler collection (op. cit., no. 12). Perhaps the most compelling stylistic parallel, however, is found in a pair of ivory reliefs with the Crowning with Thorns and the Flagellation in the Viennese Schatzkammer (inv. nos. GS Kap 324 and 325), there described as from the circle of the Vienna-based ivory carver Adam Lenckhardt and dated to the third quarter of the 17th century. It is tempting to propose that the present statuette may have been carved by the same artist as these reliefs, a hypothesis supported by the fact that the celebrated Master of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, who was active in the same milieu, is known to have sculpted in both ivory and wood.

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Buckling and S. Haag (eds.), Elfenbein: Barocke Pracht am Wiener Hof, exh. Cat. Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, 2011, pp. 92-99