Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 3rd century CE. A striking, solid cast-bronze statuette depicting Hercules (Greek Herakles, Heracles) standing in the quintessential contrapposto pose, with a lion's skin draped over his left shoulder, his left arm raised above his head and holding a bowl, and his right arm by his side, draped by a lion's skin cloak. His face is framed by a fulsome beard and curly hair. A marvelous rendering of Hercules displaying the ancient artist's strong interest in delineating the physiognomy and movement of Hercules' heroic yet human form. Size: 2.5" W x 5.55" H (6.4 cm x 14.1 cm); 7.15" H (18.2 cm) on included custom stand.
The iconography of this bronze references the legendary hero's first labor when King Eurystheus asked Hercules to bring him the skin of a fierce lion that terrorized the hillside around Nemea - a seemingly impossible task. Despite the fact that initially Hercules' arrows were utterly useless against this threatening beast, our hero ultimately succeeded, clutching the lion in his muscular arms all the while strategically avoiding its claws, finally choking it to death. The story of Hercules was a popular one in ancient Rome (with much of it derived, as so many elements of Roman culture were, from Greece - entering Roman culture by way of Etruria). Both Mark Antony and the Emperor Commodus considered him to be a personal patron god. A good example of an Attic piece is a bilingual amphora in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, depicts Hercules wearing the lion skin (99.538) as described by Euripides, "First he cleared the grove of Zeus of a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow hair in its fearful tawny gaping jaws." (Euripides, Hercules, 359).
Provenance: private Arcadia, California, USA collection, acquired prior to 2000
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#156376
Condition
Great patina and surface deposits, with nice preservation of form. Feet have attached adhesives to hold it to the stand.