Hercules fighting the Nemean lion

This print, depicting the first and probably most dramatic of the twelve labours of Hercules, is a rare example in Te Papa's collection of the chiaroscuro woodcut. This medium invented and frequently employed by Italian printmakers during the 16th century. Te Papa holds one other example, but it is a French 18th century print by Nicolas Le Sueur and does not represent the medium in its first fresh manifestation.

Chiaroscuro woodcuts involve the same relief printing technique as their more common, standard counterparts, but use two or more blocks printed in different colours. They do not necessarily feature strong contrasts of light and dark, implicit in the word 'chiaroscuro'. In this print the blocks are black and yellow brown, with white hand-coloured highlighting. Chiaroscuro woodcuts were first produced to achieve similar effects to chiaroscuro drawings. After some early experiments in book-printing, the true chiaroscuro woodcut conceived for two blocks was probably first invented by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Germany in 1508 or 1509, though Giorgio Vasari typically credited the breakthrough to Italian artists who rapidly adopted it.

Niccolò Vicenti was a second-generation chiaroscuro woodcut printmaker; some 50-60 years after his original print (itself based on a drawing by Raphael), Andrea Andreani (1564/60-1623) was also a specialist in the medium. He acquired many woodblocks for prints made earlier in the century such as this one, and reprinted them in about 1599-1610. In this case he replaced Vicentino's name Jos.Nic.Vicen with his own monogram AA at bottom left, but out of respect for Raphael, retained the 'Raph' abbreviation, known to everybody.

The whereabouts of Raphael's original is unknown, but Peter Paul Rubens copied it (or more likely a print such as this one) in a painting in a private collection in Belgium (1615); the Victoria & Albert Museum owns a later copy.

See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodcut#Chiaroscuro_woodcuts

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O131322/hercules-and-the-nemean-lion-oil-painting-rubens-peter-paul/

Dr Mark Stocker            Curator, Historical International Art          May 2017