CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

This impressive head of the hero Hercules was undoubtedly once part of a full figure. That it was joined to a body is confirmed by the ledge projecting on the interior along the edge at the back of the beard and along the edge at the back of the head. Such ledges, according to Mattusch (The Fires of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections, p. 245), thicken the wall of the figure in order to improve the join between the two pieces. The ledge, and a distinctive right angle for the join, is seen on a number of high quality bronzes of similar scale, including the head of a centaur, no. 57 in Faider-Feytmans, Les Bronzes Romains de Belgique, and the head of a young god or child, lot 488 in The Morven Collection of Ancient Art; Christie's, New York, 8 June 2004. The present head is a version of the weary Herakles of Lysippos, best known from the marble version now in Naples, the Farnese Herakles. Another Lysippan bronze of the Roman period, the head of an Apoxyomenos, now in the Kimbell Art Museum, also shares with the present example the distinctive ledge and right angle for the join (see: https://www.kimbellart.org/Collections/Collections-Detail.aspx?prov=fal se&cons=false&cid=8380).