9 JOHANN GREGOR VAN
DER SCHARDT
Dutch (active in Venice, Vienna,
Nuremberg, and Denmark),
circa 1530-1581
Mercury, circa 1570-1580
Bronze
114.9 cm (45^1 /4in.)
95.SB.8
This bronze represents Mercury, the divine messenger of the gods and patron of travel,
science, commerce, and thievery. Wearing only his winged helmet and sandals to
convey the speed with which he traverses the heavens, the athletic young god steps
forward, holding in his right hand the caduceus, his magic staff. He turns his head,
his gaze following the movement of his extended left arm. Mercury speaks, with open
mouth and articulate gesture, embodying the ideal of eloquence. A version of the
Mercury of the same design and size in the Stockholm Nationalmuseum, signed
I.G. V.S.F. for "Ian Gregor Van Sart Fecit" (Johann Gregor van der Schardt made it),
secures the attribution of the Getty bronze to Schardt. The Mercury can be traced to
the collection of Paul Praun (1548-1616), a Nuremberg patrician and avid collector
of Schardt's work, though it is uncertain whether Praun acquired it before or after the
artist's death in 1581.
Schardt, a native Dutchman, spent the early years of his career in Italy, where
he studied and copied famous antique and Renaissance statues and absorbed the
classicizing and Mannerist ideals of contemporary sculptors like Jacopo Sansovino,
Benvenuto Cellini, and Giambologna. He was one of the first artists to bring these
ideas to Northern Europe, working in the courts of Nuremberg, Vienna, and Denmark
in the 1570s. Schardt either was unaware of or rejected the most famous contemporary
rendering of Mercury by Giambologna, who shows the god in flight: poised on one
foot, with limbs extending into space, and meant to be seen from all angles. In
contrast, Schardt's Mercury is based on one of the most famous ancient statues,
the Apollo Belvedere, a figure planted firmly on the ground. Schardt refined the
composition of the revered model by elongating the limbs, torso, and neck of
the figure and emphasizing the graceful, swaying lines and easy harmony of the
body in motion. MCEUROPEAN SCULPTURE 35