(active in Tuscany mid-15th Century)
Hercules and the Nemean lion; and
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons,
tempera on panel, each 41.5 x 43 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
with Alberto Bruschi, Florence;
European art market;
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, La città di Ercole, 19 December 2015­ – 31 January 2016, cat nos. 11–12 (as Attributed to the Master of 1441)

Literature:
W. Bulst, Die Sala grande des Palazzo Medici in Florenz: Rekonstruktion und Bedeutung, in: F. Ames-Lewis, J. Poeschke (eds.), Italienische Frührenaissance und nordeuropäisches Spätmittelalter, Berlin 1993, p.105, fig. 11 (as Florentine Master, only Hercules and the Nemean lion);
A. Tartuferi, Ercole nell’arte fiorentina dei secoli XIV e XV: alcuni esempi e una proposta per il Maestro del 1441 a Signa, in: M. Bona Castellotti, A. Giuliano (eds.), Ercole il fondatore dell’antichità al Rinascimento, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2011, p. 87, figs. 3–4 (as Attributed to the Master of 1441);
W. Bulst et al. (eds.), La città di Ercole. Mitologia e politica, exhibition catalogue, Bologna 2016, pp. 70–73, nos. 11–12 (as Attributed to the Master of 1441)

The present paintings are registered in the Fototeca Zeri under nos. 102954 and 102955 (as ‘Maestro del 1441’).

The first panel represents one of the most celebrated of the labours of Hercules: the battle with the Nemean lion sent by Hera against the hero when he found himself in the city of Nemea from which the myth takes its name. Having rendered the lion invincible, Hera forced Hercules to disable it by wrenching its jaws apart as he could neither wound nor kill it. The running blood seen in the painting describes the outcome of the conflict. In this instance Hercules is painted by the artist with a grey beard and a tonsured balding head, as was usual in antiquity, and then also in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance (see W. Bulst, La città di Ercole. Mitologia e politica, exhibition catalogue, Bologna 2016, p. 70).

The second subject is more difficult to identify. Hercules’ nudity is prudishly covered by a lattice of leafy fronds while his head is bound by a foliate crown; he grasps his club with both hands, drawing it back to beat a nude woman. She is shown with long hair, her back arched in pain and her body bleeding; her hands are raised to defend herself. This female figure may be identified as Hyppolita, Queen of the Amazons, whose girdle Hercules took. In the mythological description, Hercules did not kill her but imprisoned her, and perhaps for this reason he is shown in the moment when he draws back his club to unleash his final blow, but ultimately desists.

The painter’s ability is revealed by his skill at communicating the narrative of the episodes, both of which are characterised by a boldly dramatic tone. Hercules does not appear as the victor, but rather the hero’s struggle is emphasised, and his triumph can only be detected from his enemies’ bloodshed.

The two panels are to be identified among the works assigned to the Master of 1441, the artist who painted the Stories of Beata Giovanna in the Cappella Maggiore of the Pieve di San Giovanni Battista, Signa, dated 1441 (see Tartuferi in literature). The artist’s corpus of works also includes various historiated cassone panel fragments. Among those attributed to the Master of 1441 there is another panel of square format that is of lesser quality than that under discussion: this also represents the episode of Hercules battling the Nemean lion, conserved in the Galleria Palatina, Florence (inv. no. G.R. 512; see Bulst, op. cit., p. 68, cat. no. 10).

The subjects celebrate virtue, and the mythological episodes of Hercules’ labours were themes frequently used for paintings decorating nuptial cassoni, a type that, owing to their dimensions, the paintings under discussion surely belonged to. The structure of these panels, with their horizontally coordinated compositions suggest that they were located at the short ends of a cassone.