(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Young Hercules Killing a Snake,
oil on canvas, 122.6 x 92.1 cm framed

Peter Paul Rubens was a knowledgeable collector and lover of antique sculpture. His so-called ‘Pocketbook’, a collection of his studies on antique sculpture and recommendations as to the use of antique models in art written between 1600 and 1630 and probably only compiled after his death, has survived in the form of two transcriptions, the so-called Johnson and Ganay Manuscripts (see MS Johnson, London, Courtauld Institute Galleries, Princes Gate Collection, MS de Ganay, Paris, Marquis J. L. de Ganay). The original, which figured in the collection of the French cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle, was destroyed by a fire in the Louvre in 1720. The ‘Pocketbook’ contained Rubens text ‘De Figuris Humanis’, in which the artist dealt with the various forms of antique sculpture and its depiction of the human body. It is the only surviving written document of the Flemish artist’s intensive pre-occupation with ancient sculpture. In the chapter entitled ‘De Pueris‘, which deals with the depiction of children in antiquity and the example of antique sculpture for contemporary artists, Rubens wrote:

‘Ex statuarum exemplaribus semper optima eligenda, et pro Al exemplaribus cuiuscunque aetatis imitanda sunt veluti infantiae, cuius elegantissimum exemplar suntgenii pueriles circa Nili et Tiberis statuas in hortis Vaticanis. Teretes in sese, atquerotundi, gestibus lacivis [sic], humi reptantes, et magnos patris artus, veluti montes scandentes. Quibus similes sunt illi qui ad Tiberis statuam, ibidem a lupa lactantur. Tum aetas paulo grandior, sed tamen adhuc infantulis [s/cj exhibita est ab antiquis,in cupidine dormiente super strata pelle leonis, cum face ad laevam. Eo maior est in puero juxta Ledam, ubi cum cygno colluctatur, et in Hercule serpentes o[p]primente in cunis’ (London, Courtauld Institute Galleries, Princes Gate Collection, MS Johnson, fol. lOOr, and MS de Ganay [formerly Paris, Marquis de Ganay], fol. 47r; cf. MS Johnson, fol. 32r).

Freely translated, this text reads: ‘Using (antique) statues as an example, one should always refer to the best as models for the various ages of life – for example, that of infancy, which is best exemplified by the putti with the statues of the Nile and Tiber in the Vatican Gardens. Pleased with their tender chubbiness, they are playful in their gestures, crawling on the ground and climbing over the legs of their father as if they were mountains. Other sculptures from Ancient Rome show an older infant which is presented in the form of a Cupid on a Lion’s hide, Torch in hand. More advanced in age still is the rendering of the boy in Leda struggling with the Swan and of Hercules strangling the Snakes in his Cradle.’

For understanding the present painting it would be important to know to which sculpture Rubens referred in this last sentence. Unlike many other sculptures recommended by him, ‘De Pueris’ does not mention the whereabouts of Hercules. Various antique sculptures may be considered as possibilities. In her volume of the Corpus Rubenianum, Marjon van der Meulen comes to the conclusion that the most probable candidate could be the small sculpture preserved in the Uffizi. Rubens thus probably saw the antique original of the young Hercules fighting with the Snake in Florence, where he sojourned in October 1600 and in March 1603. Smaller statues from the collection of Cosimo I were then exhibited in the Tiburtina (see M. van der Meulen, Rubens Copies after the Antique, in: Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. 23, London, 1995, p. 67, ns. 109, 110, appendix 9, pp. 250–253), including a small Hercules fighting with a Snake (O. Brendel, Der schlangenwürgende Herakliskos, in: Jahrbuch des kaiserlich deutschen Archaologischen Instituts, XLVII, 1932, pp. 218–227; Mansuelli, Cat. Uffizi, 1, no. 63, fig. 60; M. Cristofani, Per una storia del collezionismo archeologico nella Toscana granducale, in: Le arti del principato mediceo, Florence, 1980, p. 28, n. 43, fig. 10; Lexicon Mythologiae, IV, 1, p. 829, no. 1624, ill.).

A painting that appeared on the Belgian art market and was published by Marjon van der Meulen as ‘attributed to Peter Paul Rubens’ in her volume of the Corpus Rubenianum serves as a proof that Rubens, in his ‘De Pueris’ text, referred to the Florentine type. Like the present painting, this work shows a passable precise rendering of the Medici Hercules (Sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, 14 June 1955, lot 129 and 18/19 March 1958, lot 532): ‘The Hercules statue possibly served as a model for a painting auctioned in Brussels in the Palais des Beaux Arts in 1955 and 1958 (attributed to Rubens, whereabouts unknown)’ see Van der Meulen, 1995, p. 67); ‘a painting attributed to Rubens auctioned in Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, in 1955 shows a quite exact copy of the Florentine type of the infant Hercules’ (Van der Meulen, 1995, p. 253, ill. 25, ill. 26).

The present painting is thus a further variant depicting a fairly precise rendering of the Tiburtina Hercules. It proves that Rubens, in his treatise, referred to the Florentine example and that he recommended it to his students as a model. Possible authors of the present painting may therefore be Rubens’s workshop collaborators and pupils, as well as Rubens himself.