Throughout the sixteenth century, sculptors working in the German city of Nuremberg carved sculptural reliefs in various media. This polychrome example, which depicts Hercules’ battle with the Nemean lion, appears to be by the same hand as the unidentified sculptor of the ‘Grieving Warrior’ at the SMBPK, Kunstgewerbemuseum, in Berlin. That relief is carved from boxwood and dates to around the 1530s, or early 1540s. The seated figure possesses very similar physiognomic details to our Hercules and the same subtle treatment of musculature and flesh (fig.1). The famed art historian Wilhelm von Bode hypothesised that the warrior relief was a German copy of a work by the Veronese sculptor Galeazzo Mondella (1467 – 1528), known as Moderno. It is interesting to note that Moderno’s most famous works are perhaps his plaquettes that depict Hercules and the Nemean lion, the same subject as our work (fig.2).

A further comparison can be made with a pair of small reliefs in pearwood by Hans Kels. Believed to be Goldsmiths models from Augsburg, they are dated to around 1540 and located in the Germanisches National-Museum, Nuremberg (fig.3). They have a similarly open relief design (without an upper background) and the same compositional device of a grassy ground base with a barren tree stump, from which an object is hung.

Another possible candidate could be the sculptor Ludwig Krug, who was active in Nuremberg and died in 1532. His carved alabaster on slate relief of Adam and Eve, in Berlin, has many of the characteristics of the aforementioned works, from the compositional devices to the physiognomy of the male figure (fig.4).