Attributed to PETER SCHMIDT VON LICHTENBERG

Lichtenberg/Oberfranken ca. 1585 — after 1620 Breslau

Hercules and the Nemean Lion

point of brush and black ink with white gouache heightening and grey washes on prepared grey paper. 167/8 x 125/8" (426 x 318mm).

This extremely interesting sheet evolved out of the German Renaissance tradition of autonomous chiaroscuro drawing. Albrecht Durer was an early practitioner, as were Baldung Grien and Heinrich Vogtherr in the Upper Rhineland. In Nurenberg around 1540, Erhard Schon is known to have made such elaborate drawings. In Bern, Niklaus Manuel Deutsch mastered the technique as early as the 1520's. Later Tobias Stimmer who worked both in his native Schaffhausen and then in Strasbourg, executed comparable finished drawings until his death in 1584.

Peter Schmidt was born into a family of artists, though we know not when.1 His earliest drawing is dated 1608 and is presently in the Hermitage. A slightly later drawing of St. Hieronymus, dated 1618, in the collection of Prof. J. Q. van Regteren Altena,2 reveals a similar physiognomy in lean and sinewy body type. It also shares with the present drawing a similar facial morphology and an intensity in facial expression. The hatching pen work used to shade the figures is also the same.

The subject as depicted also has a long history in German Renaissance art, though sometimes it in not easy to determine if the protagonist is Hercules or Samson. While nature as shown here is somewhat tamed, as exemplified by the tranquility of the town and landscape in the distance and the controlled way in which a calm body of water empties into a stream which then glides over the rocks, the tree closest to the viewer reflects some of the wild nature of the event transpiring close by. And while man against nature may be considered a broader theme for this Herculean feat, it is brought to life with a somewhat contained or restrained savagery. We are confident all will work out well for our hero and he can then return to the reassuring classical-looking temple or little town nearby, comfortably nestled within its surroundings.
1

I am grateful to Werner Schade for suggesting a connection to Peter Schmidt in a letter dated June 2, 1997, and to Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann who thinks it a “right supposition” (his letter of Oct. 5th, 1997).

2

See Heinrich Geissler, Zeichnung in Deutschland, Deutsche Zeicken 1540 - 1640, Stuttgard, 1979, cat. #011, pp. 155-156.