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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
R. Peyrefitte, 'L'Amour chez soi', Art, published by Wildenstein, Paris, 5 April 1955, illustrated.
R. Peyrefitte, Un Musee de l'Amour, Paris, 1972, p. 81-2, and 97.
This charming statue depicts the hero as a cherubically plump child. The Romans followed the Greek taste for artistic renderings of infants, and representations of Hercules as a baby abound. In these examples he is most often shown wrestling the two snakes which were sent to kill him when he was only eight months old. Interestingly, this Hercules has the attributes more usually associated with the son of Zeus in his later years: the Nemean lion-skin, worn around his shoulders, which was won in his First Labour, and the iconic olive-wood club, which he leans on (now missing). In addition, we know from parallels that he would have been holding the golden apples of the Hesperides in his outstretched left hand, which he was ordered to steal as his Eleventh Labour (see S. Reinach, ‘Herakles Enfant, Palais des Conservateurs’, Repertoire de la Statuaire Grecque et Romaine, vol. II.I, p. 230). This seemingly illogical marrying of a tender depiction of youth with the spoils of heroic deeds is highly unusual, attested to in only a couple of other statues, including one in green basalt in the Capitoline Museums (Inv.Scu 1016; see also the Barbier-Mueller Museum, inv. 204-11). Such figures allude to the hero’s burgeoning physical prowess, and provide a playful nod to the exploits to come.
R. Peyrefitte, 'L'Amour chez soi', Art, published by Wildenstein, Paris, 5 April 1955, illustrated.
R. Peyrefitte, Un Musee de l'Amour, Paris, 1972, p. 81-2, and 97.
This charming statue depicts the hero as a cherubically plump child. The Romans followed the Greek taste for artistic renderings of infants, and representations of Hercules as a baby abound. In these examples he is most often shown wrestling the two snakes which were sent to kill him when he was only eight months old. Interestingly, this Hercules has the attributes more usually associated with the son of Zeus in his later years: the Nemean lion-skin, worn around his shoulders, which was won in his First Labour, and the iconic olive-wood club, which he leans on (now missing). In addition, we know from parallels that he would have been holding the golden apples of the Hesperides in his outstretched left hand, which he was ordered to steal as his Eleventh Labour (see S. Reinach, ‘Herakles Enfant, Palais des Conservateurs’, Repertoire de la Statuaire Grecque et Romaine, vol. II.I, p. 230). This seemingly illogical marrying of a tender depiction of youth with the spoils of heroic deeds is highly unusual, attested to in only a couple of other statues, including one in green basalt in the Capitoline Museums (Inv.Scu 1016; see also the Barbier-Mueller Museum, inv. 204-11). Such figures allude to the hero’s burgeoning physical prowess, and provide a playful nod to the exploits to come.