Farnese Hercules
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GoltziusFarneseHerc.jpg
The Farnese Hercules stood for generations in his own room at Palazzo Farnese, Rome, frescoed with his feats by Federico Zuccaro in 1566-69 (as Vasari noted). The is now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale NapoliMuseo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. The Hercules is one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity, and has fixed the image of Hercules in the European imagination. The sculpture is a 3rd century Roman copy (or perhaps one made in the Athenian studio of Glycon) of a sculpture by Lysippos or one of his circle, in the 4th century BCE. The chronicler Ulisse Aldrovandi recorded in 1592 that the statue had been unearthed in 1546 in the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla (dedicated in 216 CE). It quickly made its way into the collection of Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III. Alessandro Farnese was well placed to form one of the greatest collections of classical sculpture that has been assembled since Antiquity.
Hercules is caught in a rare moment of repose. Leaning on his knobby club which is draped with the pelt of the Nemean Lion, he holds the apples of the Hesperides in his right hand but conceals them behind his back like a pitcher with a knuckleball.
Many engravings and woodcuts spread the fame of the Farnese's Hercules. In 1562 the famous find was already included in the set of engravings for Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae ("Mirror of Rome's Magnificence")[1] (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/clan/hod_41.72%5B2.63%5D.htm) and connoisseurs, artists and tourists gaped at the original, which stood in the courtyard of the Palazzo Farnese, protected under the arcade.
Hendrik Goltzius sketched the Hercules during his trip to Rome (1590 - 1591), when the Hercules already stood in the palazzo courtyard. Later (in 1617) Goltzius recorded the less common rear view, by working up a bravura engraving (illustration, right), which emphasizes the already exaggerated muscular form with swelling and tapering lines that flow over the contours.[2] (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/engr/hod_17.37.59.htm) The young Rubens made quick sketches of the Hercules' planes and massing. Before photography, prints were the only way to put the image into many hands. Connoisseurs with more funding could afford one of the numerous bronze replicas of the Farnese Hercules, of a size to stand on a table or upon a cabinet. A full-size marble copy that belonged to the Bourbons of Naples is at the National Museum, Naples.
Copies of the Farnese Hercules appeared in 17th and 18th century gardens throughout Europe. At Kassel a colossal version 8.5 m high produced by Johann Jacob Anthoni, 1717, has become the city's mascot.
External links
- Goltzius' engraving (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/engr/hod_17.37.59.htm) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reference
Phyllis Bober and Ruth Rubinstein. Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture, 1986.