CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE FIGURE OF HERCULES
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
The muscular hero depicted nude, standing on an integral plinth with a concave molding, holding a hind-leg of the deceased Nemean lion in his left hand, his right arm akimbo with his hand resting on his hip, his torso turned slightly to his left, his head frontal, with a full beard and short wavy hair, his right leg supported by a tree trunk, the lion head on an extension of the plinth, mouth open, revealing fangs, his mane well articulated
34 in. (86.4 cm.) high

Provenance

with Mitsukoshi Department Store, Japan, 1983.
Antiquities, Christie's, New York, 5-6 December 2001, lot 642.

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Lot Essay

Depictions of Hercules holding the strangled lion by a hind-leg are comparatively rare. The type is known from Roman sarcophagi that illustrate the Hercules cycle, and there is a free-standing version in the Vatican. For the sarcophagi see nos. 1716-1718, 1721, 1724 and 1736, and for the Vatican sculpture see no. 1977 in A. Hermary, "Herakles," in LIMC, vol. V.

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