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Hercules
Attributed to Willem Danielsz van Tetrode Netherlandish
Not on view
Tetrode modeled this figure of Hercules in wet, fleshy clay, which was then fired and painted. The Italian-trained sculptor was instrumental in bringing the revived art of the bronze statuette to Northern Europe. This piece, his only known work in terracotta, was inspired by an ancient marble of Hercules at Rest. However, it seems to intentionally undermine the Italian classical tradition. Naturalistic color was applied—note the slightly sunburned shoulders—in a manner that presents Hercules as a naked man, rather than an idealized, nude demigod. Stripped of his identifying lion skin, his body is still muscular but also slightly haunchy with age. This demystified Hercules is marvelously antiheroic.
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