The Earl of Kinnaird, Rossie Priory, Inchture, Scotland;
His sale, London, Christie's, 21 June 1946, lot 36;
With Kaufmann, London, 1946;
With Grete Ring, at Paul Cassirer & Co., London, 1947-8;
Dr Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, by 1952.

Laren, 1968-9, no. 13.

Wetzlar cat, 1952, p. 14, no. 44, reproduced;
W. Stechow, Catalogue of European and American Paintings and Sculpture in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin (Ohio) 196, pp. 72-3;
P.J.J. van Thiel et al, All the paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam..., Maarssen 1976, p. 265, under nos. A 3511-4; 
R. Grosshans, Maerten van Heemskerck.  Die Gemälde, Berlin 1980, pp. 148-151, cat. nos. 30e, 30f, reproduced plate 47;
Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 38, reproduced p. 39.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Samson The oak panel has the remains of an old glue to the reverse an visible splits in the paint surface, including a 5cm one through Samson's groin, one lower left and up from the bottom edge and one along the length of the left hand edge. The paint layer is stable but it has been insecure in the past as discoloured restorations will testify, including to the gate, upper left, and to the legs and the robe between the legs of Samson. These restorations are clumsy and excessive. There are a scattering of restorations across the surface but, overall, the painting is in a good condition with preserved passages of paint. Pluto The oak panel is similar to Samson's, although there is a more substantial unstable vertical split visible. The paint surface is more disturbed, there is paint loss beneath the signature and more of the delicate scumbles and glazes have been abraded. These areas have been strengthened, but clumsily and excessively. There are still areas where the paint is in good condition with the paint texture well preserved. Offered in burr wood and gilt frames, with some losses."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

These are two of a set of twelve small upright panels painted en brunaille which represent heroes from Mythology and from the Old Testament, of which four each depict episodes from the Trials of Samson and the Labours of Hercules, and one each depicts Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto & Neptune.  The complete set was in the collection of Lord Kinnaird until his sale in 1946, when they were dispersed.  Four are now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, four are in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., U.S.A., and two are in the Allan Memorial Art Gallery at Oberlin, Ohio, U.S.A.¹   Three of them are signed.²  Their precise purpose is uncertain, but they appear to depict trials of strength and steadfastness, providing exempla of virtue from pagan and Christian history.

Erwin Panofsky suggested an iconographic reconstruction of the group, placing in counterpart the Labours of Hercules and the Trials of Samson.³  He interpreted the remaining panels as alluding to the Four elements, and related these to the Labours of Hercules thus:-
Jupiter: Air: Hercules carrying the Column of Heaven
Pluto: Fire: Hercules conquering Hydra
Saturn: Earth: Hercules conquering Antaeus
Neptune: Water: Hercules conquering Nessus (a Ferryman).

Grosshans elaborated on this reconstruction, but did not deviate from Panofsky's interpretation.  He did however most usefully provide a photographic reconstruction, which is reproduced here as fig. 1 (overleaf).

Both Grosshans and Stechow date these panels to shortly after Heemskerck's return from Rome in 1536/7, Grosshans dating them circa 1540.  As Stechow observed, Heemskerck's memory of Roman sarcophagi must still have been very vivid.  While Heemskerck continued to use grisaille to evoke classical sculpture in the round and in relief throughout most of the rest of his career, few if any of his other pictures reveal such an obvious and direct debt to Roman Antiquity.  Their revolutionary appearance must surely have caused quite a stir in the Netherlands, where attenuated Mannerist figural forms were still the pictorial norm. 

1.  The whereabouts of the other ten panels are as follows.  The letters form a key to fig. 1.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum:
(C) Neptune; (F) Hercules slaying the Centaur Nessus; (H) Samson pulling down the Columns of the Temple; (J) Samson conquering the Lion. 
Oberlin, Ohio, Allen Memorial Art Museum:
(B) Jupiter; (K) Samson slaying the Philistines.
New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery:
(A) Saturn; (D) Hercules conquering Antaeus; (E) Hercules carrying the Column of Heaven; (G) Hercules slaying the Hydra.
2.  Apart from the Wetzlar Pluto, the Samson pulling down the Columns of the Temple in the Rijksmuseum and the Saturn at Yale are signed, all with the same Latinized form of the artist's name. 
3.&n🎉bsp; In a letter of 1950, published in Stechow, 1967 (see Literature)&🐲nbsp;