December 1539<\/p>\n
The earliest reference to a design of a statue in silver of Hercules that was to be made by Rosso is contained in the record of the deliberations of 30 November 1539 concerned with Charles V\u2019s forthcoming visit to Paris (Archives Nationales, Paris, Registres du Bureau de la Ville de Paris, H 1780, fol. 5, \u201cVoyage en court Croquet pour le faict de l\u2019entr\u00e9e dud. Empereur,\u201d Gu\u00e9rin, 1883, III, 5-6).\u00a0 Part of these deliberations is about the nature of the present that the city of Paris was to give to the emperor.\u00a0 At first a sideboard (\u201cbuffet\u201d) decorated with eagles at the ends was suggested, but the king disliked the idea as a gift for Charles V, \u201cmais il convenoit adviser luy faire present de chose destin\u00e9e pour luy et qui luy dememourast pour memoire.\u201d\u00a0 The record of this deliberation immediately continues: \u201cEt apr\u00e8s avoir est\u00e9 mys plusieurs actes en avant, auroit led. seigneur Roy advis\u00e9 faire ung decin ou pourtraict d\u2019un Hercules, couvert de sa peau de lyon bien dor\u00e9e, led. Hercules tenant en ses deux mains deux coulonnes, comme les plantans par force en terre, et lesquelles coulonnes feussent appliqu\u00e9es \u00e0 y mectre flambeaulx quant l\u2019on vouldroit; ausquelles coulonnes seroit escript le devis de l\u2019Empereur, qui est : Plus oultre<\/i>, et en l\u2019escharpe dud. Hercules: Altera alterius robur<\/i>.\u00a0 Et pour faire led. pourtraict, auroit ordonn\u00e9 \u00e0 mond. sr<\/sup> de Boisy faire lettres \u00e0 Me<\/sup> Rousse, paintre d\u2019icelluy seigneur, estant \u00e0 Fontainebleaue, pour en faire le decin, selon son desir; et pour faire les mosles pour le gecter, si besoing estoit, auroit nomm\u00e9 ung nomm\u00e9 Chevrier, estant d\u2019Orleans, demourant en la ville de Paris.\u00a0 Pour accomplir le vouloir duquel seigneur, icelluy Croquet se seroit retir\u00e9 avec les lettres du Roy faictes par led. de Boisy, aud. Fontainebleau, et icelluy pourtraict faict par led. Me<\/sup> Rousse; lequel il nous auroit apport\u00e9 pour suyvre et accomplir le voulloir dud. seigneur Roy.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n That the statue of Hercules as specified here by Francis I was actually made is indicated by a description of it in Lordre tenu & garde a Lentree de treshault & trespuissant prince Charles Empereur tousiours Auguste en la Ville de Paris, capitalle du Royaulme de France<\/i>, Paris, Gilles Carrozet et Jehan du Pre, 1539 [1540] (Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale, D\u00e9partement des Imprim\u00e9s, R\u00e9serve Lb30<\/sup>, no. 84):<\/p>\n \u201cLe Dimenche quatriesme iour di Janvier Messieurs de la ville luy feirent present dung Hercules dargent de sept pieds de hault, pesant quatre ce[n]s marcs: lequel tenoit deux grosses collomnes serva[n]tes de chandelliers, a lentour desquelles estoit escript la devise dudit prince: Plus oultre.\u00a0 Icelluy Hercules portoit en escharpe escript: Altera alterius robur.\u00a0 Cest a dire.\u00a0 Lune est lappuy de lautre. Et icelluy present il accepta de bon cueur monstrant ioyeulx visiage, et les remercie.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n The statue is also described in Ren\u00e9 Mac\u00e9\u2019s poem of 1540, Voyage de Charles-Quint par la France, Po\u00e9me historique<\/i> (ed. Raynaud, Paris, 1879, 82);<\/p>\n \u201cSept pieds de long avoit ceste statue Another contemporary source (Archives Nationales, Paris, Registres du Bureau de la Ville de Paris, H 1780, fol. 8, \u201cL\u2019entr\u00e9e de l\u2019Empereur Charles d\u2019Aultriche \u00e0 Paris,\u201d Gu\u00e9rin, 1883, 10) gives the following account of the gift: \u201cEt le lendemain alla loger au chasteau du Louvre, o\u00f9 mesdits srs<\/sup> de la Ville luy furent presenter ung bel et grand Herculles effigi\u00e9 tout d\u2019argent et vestu d\u2019une peau de lion, lequel estoit de environ six piedz de hault et tenoit deux grosses coulonnes d\u2019argent, lesquelles il plantoit \u00e0 force dedans terre.\u00a0 Et portoit en son echappe ung grand escripteau o\u00f9 il y avoit \u00e9script Altera alterius robur<\/i>.\u00a0 Et alentour des coulonnes estoit escript: Plus oultre<\/i>, qui est la devise dud Empereur.\u00a0 Et avoit \u00e0 ses piedz sur le devant ung aigle \u00e0 deux testes.\u00a0 Lequel Hercules fut mys dedans ung estui de cuyr, sur lequel avoit des aigles \u00e0 deux testes dor\u00e9es, et estoit doubl\u00e9 de satin verd.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Cellini, in his autobiography (Cellini-Ferrero, 1971, 448-449), mentions the Hercules as one of silver and as of the same size as the silver statue of Zeus that he made for Francis I a short while later.\u00a0 It is also discussed in his Dell\u2019Oreficeria<\/i> (Cellini-Ferrero, 1971, 732) as of silver, as showing Hercules with two columns, and as around three and a half braccia high.\u00a0 (On what Cellini says about the making of the statue itself, see below.)<\/p>\n The only sixteenth century source that attributes the design of the silver Hercules that the city of Paris gave to Charles V on 4 January 1540 is the record of the deliberation of 30 November 1539 that records the king\u2019s command that his idea for such a statue be conveyed to Rosso so that he could make the \u201cpourtraict\u201d\u2019 or \u201cdecin\u201d of it, \u201cselon son desir.\u201d\u00a0 This design was to serve Chevrier in making the molds from which the statue would be cast.\u00a0 None of the descriptions of or references to the statue itself, including Cellini\u2019s, mentions Rosso.<\/p>\n Apparently it was Michel Felibien in 1725 (V, 353-354) who first published the record of the commission and a description of the statue, from which it could be concluded that the latter was actually designed by Rosso.\u00a0 By this time, it seems, the statue had already long disappeared.\u00a0 At the end of the eighteenth century, Philippe Baert reported that the statue had been at the ch\u00e2teau of the Duke of Boussu (Boussut), Jean de Hennin, two leagues from Mons, in modern Belgium: \u201cDans la grande galerie de ce ch\u00e2teau \u00e9toit une figure d\u2019Hercules d\u2019argent massif, haute de 6 pieds, faite par Chervier, sculpteur d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, d\u2019apr\u00e8s le mod\u00e8le de ma\u00eetre Roux, italien.\u00a0 Les Parisiens offrirent cette statue en pr\u00e9sent \u00e0 l\u2019empereur Charles V, lors de son passage \u00e0 Paris, en 1540; ce prince la donna ensuite au compte de Boussu\u201d (Baert-Reiffenberg, 1848, 46).4<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The source of Baert\u2019s information has not been located but it could have been one of the seventeenth century editions, with added notes, of Lodovico Guicciardini\u2019s Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi<\/i> (first edition 1567), giving the location of the statue in the Sala d\u2019Apollo (see Hedicke, 1912, 291-292).\u00a0 But even Guicciardini would never have seen the statue if it was destroyed along with the ch\u00e2teau in 1554 (Kusenberg, 1931, 105-106, and Dimier, 1914, 116).<\/p>\n In this century the attribution of the design of the lost statue to Rosso has been recognized by Dimier, 1904, 52, n.; Hedicke, 1912, 291-292, who says wrongly that the statue was \u201chaute de douze pieds;\u201d Kusenberg, 1931, 105-106, 203-224, ns. 264 and 265; Pierre Champion, Paris au temps de la Renaissance. Paganisme et R\u00e9forme<\/i>, Paris, 1936, 79; Huon, F\u00eates<\/i>, I, 1956, 23-24; B\u00e9guin, 1960, 44; Jacquot, F\u00eates<\/i>, II, 1960, 439; and Denieul-Cormier, 1962, 192 (1969, 135); Terrasse, III, 1970, 53-54; Schneebalg-Perelman, 1982, 125; K. Wilson-Chevalier, in Fontainebleau<\/i>, 1985, 88; Carroll, 1987, 31; Grodecki, 1988 (1989), 22; and Knecht, 1994, 391-392.\u00a0 Dimier, 1914, 112-116, inadvertently attributed the design of the statue to Cellini.<\/p>\n Given the information now available, it is clear that Rosso was to be asked shortly after 30 November 1539 to make a design for a silver statue of Hercules that was to be given to Charles V by the city of Paris and that in Paris on 4 January 1540 such a gift was indeed given to the emperor.\u00a0 There is, however, no sixteenth century source that says that Rosso in fact made a design or that the statue was actually executed from a drawing or drawings by him.\u00a0 Nevertheless, this is highly likely, given that the king dictated the conception of the statue and commanded that it be sent to Rosso so that he might make a drawing from it that would serve the sculptor.\u00a0 This conclusion is generally accepted.<\/p>\n No visual evidence of the statue is known.\u00a0 Francis I specified that the statue would be of Hercules wearing a lion skin that would be gilt.\u00a0 Hercules was to hold two columns, which he would plant on the ground with force.\u00a0 These columns were to be made to hold torches, and on the columns was to be inscribed Charles V\u2019s motto: Plus oultre<\/i>.\u00a0 On a sash that Hercules wore was to appear: Altera alterius robur<\/i>.\u00a0 There is here no indication that this statue was to be made of silver, although there is reference to it being cast.\u00a0 There is also no indication of its size, although the mention of molds, rather than simply of a mold, seems to imply that a large statue was intended.<\/p>\n All descriptions of the statue itself present the details of Francis I\u2019s conception and indicate as well that the statue was made of silver and that it was about two meters high (six or seven \u201cpieds\u201d).5<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 One source gives its weight as four hundred \u201cmarcs.\u201d\u00a0 Both the king\u2019s specifications and Mac\u00e9\u2019s description of the statue itself indicate that Hercules\u2019s lion skin was gilt.6<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 However, two details of the statue itself are not contained in Francis I\u2019s description.\u00a0 The king had dictated that the columns were to be planted on the ground but Ren\u00e9 Mac\u00e9\u2019s account of the statue states that they were planted in a turbulent, bubbling, and foaming sea.\u00a0 The other contemporary description of the statue contained in the account of the emperor\u2019s entry states that at the front of the statue at Hercules\u2019s feet there was a double-headed eagle.\u00a0 As the letter that was actually sent to Rosso specifying the conception of the statue is not known, it cannot be ascertained if these two details are additions by Rosso or had earlier been added to the original invention from which he made his design.\u00a0 The sculptor, Chevrier, could also have added them, although this seems unlikely inasmuch as the king entrusted Rosso to make its design \u201cselon son desir.\u201d\u00a0 It should, however, be noted that the detail of the sea makes reference to the columns as the geographical Pillars of Hercules, beyond which Charles V has territory, and that the eagle further identifies Hercules with the emperor.\u00a0 The action of the sea sounds like Rosso\u2019s invention.7<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n The statue, made by Pierre du Brimbal, called Chevrier (on whom, see Dimier, 1914, 115), was severely criticized by Cellini in his autobiography because of its poor workmanship, which, he said, caused the king to declare that it was the ugliest work he had ever seen.\u00a0 In his Dell\u2019Oreficeria<\/i>, he again criticized it on technical grounds, not because of the finish of its parts,8<\/sup><\/a> but because of the poor manner in which they were joined by silver wire rather than by solder.\u00a0 It might here be recalled that this large statue had to be made in one month\u2019s time.<\/p>\n On two other representations of Hercules made by Rosso in France probably for the festivities accompanying Charles V\u2019s visit to Fontainebleau immediately before he went to Paris, see L.48<\/a>, D.78<\/a>, E.17<\/a>, and E.160<\/a>.9<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 For other \u201ccolossi\u201d mentioned by Vasari as made for this occasion, see L.48<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>1<\/sup> Also transcribed with some minor alterations in Felibien, 1725, V, 353-354; Archives curieuses de l\u2019histoire de France<\/i>, ed. L. Cimber and E. Danjou, 1st series, III, 1835, 432-433; and Dimier, 1914, 114.\u00a0 McAllister Johnson, 1974, 32, n. 19, mentioned \u201cthe decisive personal intervention of Francis Ier<\/sup>\u201d as having \u201cthe value of precedent<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>3<\/sup> Also transcribed with minor alterations in Felibien, 1725, V, 357, and in Dimier, 1914, 114-115.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>4<\/sup> On Baert, see Bibliographie nationale … de Belgique<\/i>, Brussels, I, 1866, 634.\u00a0 The manuscript of his M\u00e9moires<\/i> was acquired by the Biblioth\u00e8que Royale in Brussels in 1812 (Fonde de M. Van Hulthem, cat. nos. 847 and 848).\u00a0 The \u201cseigneur de Boussu\u201d had traveled with the emperor from Spain (see Gachard, 1846, 43, n. 2).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>5<\/sup> Pope-Hennessy, 1985, 103, 303, n. 11, noting that the two columns served as torches, stated that the statue was life-sized, or just over two meters in height.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nD\u2019argent massif, en escharpe vestue
\nSaulvaigement d\u2019un cuir a poil dor\u00e9;
\nViaire, bras, tout y est natur\u00e9:
\nPour borne en mer deux grans coulonnes plante;
\nL\u2019eau en tressault, boullante et escumante,
\nEt alentour \u201cPLUS OULTRE\u201d est engrav\u00e9.
\nHercul\u00e8s la fa\u00e7oit quest achev\u00e9;
\nTous ses labeurs Charles a pass\u00e9 oultre,
\nEt des enfance a pour son mot: \u201cPLUS OULTRE.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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