Farnese Hercules

Type:

sculpture (visual works); 3d

Category:

Archaeological finds; Sculptures

Author:

Glicone, title=Glycon of Athens; URL=http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q707097

Colossal statue standing on a base, in white Pentelic marble, found in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, in the passageway between the frigidarium and the north-western gymnasium. The statue depicts Hercules naked, mature and bearded, with turgid muscles. His small head, with short curly hair, is tilted to the left with a thoughtful and melancholic gaze turned downwards. The powerful figure gravitates on the right leg, with the left advanced and brought in front of the other, and with the feet almost aligned, so as to create a notable unbalance of the right hip compensated by the position of support of the left armpit, like of prop, on the club, covered by the lion's skin, upright on a rock and folded double with the feline's muzzle in profile. The left arm hangs limply forward, the right is turned behind his back to hold the newly conquered apples of the Hesperides. The statue was sculpted by Glykon in the first quarter of the 3rd century AD. inspired by an original by Lysippus from the 4th century BC. Acquired around 1545 by Pope Paul III during the excavations for the factory of San Pietro, the sculpture was brought to Palazzo Farnese, becoming part of the family's antiquities collections, which later came into the possession of Charles of Bourbon, Philip's eldest son V of Spain and Elisabetta Farnese.The sculpture is signed on the rock, under the club, "ΓΛΥΚΩΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ ΕΠΟΙΕΙ" (Glycon athenaios epoiei/Athenian Glycon made).

Subject:

archaeology
archaeology
Hercules

Extent:

h. cm 317

Provenance:

Baths of Caracalla; Farnese collection