TETRODE, Willem Danielsz van - b. ~1525 Delft, d. ~1587 Delft - WGA

TETRODE, Willem Danielsz van

(b. ~1525 Delft, d. ~1587 Delft)

Willem Danielsz van Tetrode (known in Italy as Guglielmo Fiammingo) was a sculptor of Netherlandish origin, who spent most of his life abroad.

He is documented at the court of François I by his late teens, the place where he probably met Benvenuto Cellini, who left the French court and returned to Florence in 1545. Tetrode was in Florence between 1545 and 1551, where he worked in the studio of Benvenuto Cellini. He was among the sculptors who worked on the marble base for Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa in Florence. In Rome he worked under the direction of Guglielmo della Porta, restoring antiquities for the Cortile del Belvedere and other Vatican projects.

During his Italian period he became familiar with forms of sculpture and patronage that were barely known in his native Holland. He worked for princes with a refined taste and a cultured interest in classical antiquity. The most important thing he learned in Italy was how to make bronze sculptures that went on to grace his patrons’ art cabinets: small, portable statues, mainly of mythological subjects.

In 1567 he returned to Delft. There in 1568 he signed a contract for the new high altar in the Oude Kerk, which he finished in 1573. In 1574-75 he was in Cologne.

Tetrode was a seminal figure in introducing to the Netherlands the small-scale bronze sculpture, suited to a collector’s study.

Hercules Pomarius

Between 1545 and 1565 Van Tetrode trained with the Italian Mannerist sculptors Benvenuto Cellini and Bartolommeo Ammanati in Florence and Guglielmo della Porta in Rome. In Florence he made several bronze statuettes after the antique that entered the collections of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. The Hercules Pomarius is a reflection of the famous classical Farnese Hercules. Like Michelangelo, Tetrode concentrated on male figures, and he provided them with strikingly varied but always taut and rippling torsos. They convey a heroic sense of movement and force, even when standing still. When they are not, these torsos support impressive feats of agility, violence and strength, both athletic and artistic.

Send Postcard Learn More

Hercules Pomarius

Send Postcard Learn More

Nude Warrior

This striding bronze man, a sort of classical swordsman in an attacking pose, is a typical example of the kind of cabinet sculpture in which Tetrode excelled. In lack of attributes, the figure cannot be identified with any mythological hero. It is a study of the human form, which is shown in a fascinating pose.

Send Postcard Learn More

Nude Warrior

Three other casts of this statue survive - in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, and in a private collection. The present bronze, very lightly cast in a reddish gold metal, bears a coat of well-preserved dark brown lacquer.

Send Postcard Learn More

Samson Slaying the Philistine

During his time in Italy (c. 1548-1567), Tetrode mastered anatomical studies, creating a variety of bronzes of heroic men with rippling muscles. His preference for exaggerated musculature is manifest in the present vigorously modeled and dynamic cast of the two struggling figures.

Send Postcard Learn More