INCISIONE DELL'ERCOLE FARNESE -- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York -- by J. Bos, active Rome ca. 1549-80 -- Antonio Lafreri, Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae -- ERCOLE "Farnesiano"

Speranza

Emperor Commodus as Hercules

Wooden Framework to Support Arches in a Building

View of Modern Rome

Temple

Emperor Commodus as Hercules

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Timeline:

• France, 1400-1600 A.D.

Essay:

• The Rediscovery of Classical Antiquity

The Farnese Hercules

Jacobus Bos           

Netherlandish, Hertogenbosch ca. 1520, active Rome ca. 1549–80.                      

Publisher:

Antonio Lafreri (Orgelet (Franche-Comte) ca. 1512–1577 Rome)

Date:

1562

Medium:

Engraving

Dimensions:

sheet: 17 7/16 x 11 7/8 in. (44.3 x 30.2 cm) mount: 20 1/2 x 14 15/16 in. (52 x 38 cm)

Classification:

Prints

Credit Line:

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941

Accession Number:

41.72(2.63)

Published as part of Antonio Lafreri's "Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae". This print comes from a scrapbook of 3 volumes with inlaid engraved and etched plates.

It is likely that individuals who purchased the prints from Lafreri made their own selections and had them bound.

For a history of the publication of the Speculum prints, see Peter Parshall,

"Antonio Lafreri's Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae," Print Quarterly, 2001 (1-28).

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription:

On the rock: Greek text On the base of the statue at lower right:

Iacobus Boßius Belga incidit At bottom center:

Omnium elegantißimum Herculis signum Gliconis Atheniensis peritissimi artificis manu fabre factu Quod Paulo iÿ Pont.max.in / thermarum Antoniniar ruderibus inventum et in domus Farnesianae ad campum Florae interiori porticulocatum Ant. Lafrerius
Sequanus aenneis formis diligenter expreßit Anno MDLXII

Marking: On verso at center: The Metropolitan Museum of Art stamp

• Provenance
  H. P. Kraus
• Catalogue Raisonné
  Quaritch Catalogue 180; Huelsen 55a; Hollstein III.150.15
• See also

  Who

  • Antonio Lafreri (169)
  • Jacob(us) Bos (7)

  What

  • Prints (52,602)
  • Engraving (14,506)

  Where

  • Europe (141,830)
  • France (44,688)

  When

  • A.D. 1400-1600 (19,675)

  In the Museum

  • Drawings and Prints (77,853)

  Timelines from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

  • France, 1400-1600 A.D.

  Essays from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

  • The Rediscovery of Classical Antiquity