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Dimensions: 245 by 170mm; 9 5/8 by 6 3/4 in
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Provenance: Padre Sebastiano Resta;
John, Lord Somers (L.2981, his numbering lower right: d:66; listed in the Resta-Somers catalogue in the British Museum, Ms. Lansdowne 802);
on an old mount with the attribution Cav: Aless.o Algardi and the numbers 2684 and 59
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Notes: This unpublished drawing by Algardi relates to the stucco decorations in the Galleria di Ercole of the Villa Belrespiro, a Doria-Pamphili villa outside Rome (see J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven 1985, vol.II, pp. 454-55, cat. no.A.198, reproduced figs. 88-94). The decoration was carried out in 1646, after Algardi's designs, by the stuccatori Rocco Bolla and Giovanni Maria Sorisi. According to Bellori, Algardi went to Tivoli to draw inspiration for his work from Hadrian's Villa, although it seems that even at that time there was very little of the original stucco work still in place. But there were many other examples of classically inspired stucco decorations in the work of Renaissance artists such as Giovanni da Udine or even Raphael, who had studied the ancient stucchi in the Domus Aurea.
The decoration of the Villa Belrespiro was intended to honor Camillo Pamphili, who had been created cardinal in November 1644. Hercules and the stories of his labors were thought to be an inspiration for young noblemen. This study relates to the vertical rectangle depicting Hercules mounting the Pyre. Other studies for this series of stucchi have survived, including three in the British Museum, one of which represents Hercules Rising from the Pyre, the subsequent episode in the story of Hercules (see Nicholas Turner, Roman Baroque Drawings, London 1999, vol. I, cat. nos. 1-3, reproduced vol. II). The source of inspiration for Algardi's stucchi, besides Annibale Carracci's decoration of the Camerino in Palazzo Farnese, seems to have been a casket by Annibale Fontana, decorated with engraved rock crystals, which was in the collection of the Duke of Mantua, where the young Algardi was working before his arrival in Rome.
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