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Source Description

This statuette, depicting the demigod Hercules resting between his labors, is a reduction of a colossal marble statue (over 10 ft. high) executed by the sculptor Glykon in the early 3rd century. It, in turn, was modeled after a lost original 4th-century BC bronze statue by the famous Greek sculptor Lysippus. In 1546, Glykon's statue was discovered during an excavation in Rome and was displayed in the garden of the palace belonging to the Farnese family, hence its name (it is now in the National Archeological Museum, Naples).The statue, with its impressive rendering of Hercules's physique, was instantly famous, and admiration for it was reflected in the widespread ownership of small and full-size copies. While in Rome, the great Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1576-1640) made drawings of the colossus that he used for his paintings. There was even a full-size plaster cast in a 17th-century collection in Antwerp.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
19489
label
The Farnese Hercules
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
19489
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
The Farnese Hercules
description
This statuette, depicting the demigod Hercules resting between his labors, is a reduction of a colossal marble statue (over 10 ft. high) executed by the sculptor Glykon in the early 3rd century. It, in turn, was modeled after a lost original 4th-century BC bronze statue by the famous Greek sculptor Lysippus. In 1546, Glykon's statue was discovered during an excavation in Rome and was displayed in the garden of the palace belonging to the Farnese family, hence its name (it is now in the National Archeological Museum, Naples).The statue, with its impressive rendering of Hercules's physique, was instantly famous, and admiration for it was reflected in the widespread ownership of small and full-size copies. While in Rome, the great Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1576-1640) made drawings of the colossus that he used for his paintings. There was even a full-size plaster cast in a 17th-century collection in Antwerp.
provenance
Raoul Heilbronner, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1909, by purchase, Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1650 (Baroque)
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Metal
statuettes (statues)
figurines
bronzes
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
33.6
height
16
depth
12.5
dimensionsRaw
H: 13 1/4 × W: 6 5/16 × D: 4 15/16 in. (33.6 × 16 × 12.5 cm)
Source extras
med
bronze with marble base
creator_ids
15392
15393
33562
collection_ids
BAR
ROM
GRC
exhibition_ids
2949
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
db372cc1626bf952