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Lot Essay
The youthful hero with well-defined musculature, standing in the classic contrapposto pose and gazing off into the distance with his head turned three-quarters to the left. His short, curly hair is swept up from his forehead and he wears a vine wreath which is tied with a fillet at the back with the ribbons falling onto his shoulder blades, one of them underneath the lion skin. The large lion pelt is draped around his left arm with the head and knotted forelegs hanging over this shoulder and the hindlegs over his arm. A knotted loop in the tail keeps it off the ground. He rests his right hand on his club and he holds out the apples of the Hesperides in his left hand. The vine leaf wreath and the pelt with finely incised details.
Depictions of Herakles in classical art first appeared in Archaic Greece, and as Boardman noted "no god or hero was more widely worshipped through the Greek and Roman world; no god of hero was more often represented in ancient art" (LIMC, IV, p. 728). His winning strength and honest mortal failings provided the perfect model for Greek and Roman rulers to assimilate for their own propaganda. The distinctive facial features of this figure - with heavy, slightly bulbous brow, large eyes and fleshy cheeks - are purely Hellenistic. The treatment of the muscular body can be found in parallels of the Albertini Herakles, for example the statue in the Museo Nazionale, Rome and the gilt statue in the Vatican, Rome (nos. 289 and 302 in Boardman, op. cit.), but here the lionskin is draped over the left arm rather than the shoulder. For a Hellenistic bronze Herakles with well-defined musculature see acc. no. 1805,0703.38, in the British Museum. Closer still to our bronze is a depiction of a statue of Herakles on an Apulian red-figured column-krater in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. 271 in Boardman, op. cit.) where a sculptor attends to the finishing touches by applying color to the lionskin. Here the skin is worn over the shoulder, but the left arm clutches the drapery, the hand emerging. For a youthful Herakles wearing a luxurious wreath see the marble head in the Munich Glyptothek (no. 363 in Boardman, op.cit.).
Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alkmene, the wife of king Amphitryon of Thebes. As his name suggests, his mythology is closely tied with the goddess Hera, Zeus’s wife. When Hera learned of her husband’s infidelity with Alkmene, she set out to plague the child at every stage of his life. As Alkmene was about to give birth, Zeus proclaimed that the first male child born on that day would be destined to become a king. Hearing her husband’s boast, Hera rushed to Argos and persuaded the birth goddess Eleithyia to hasten the arrival of Nikippe’s child to ensure the distinction would not go to Alkmene’s. Her son Eurystheus was born first, and would become the ruler of Argos. He would go on to play a major role in the life of the hero. Alkmene meanwhile, fearful of Hera’s rage, abandoned the infant. The god Hermes rescued him and put him to the breast of the sleeping Hera. Herakles was able to drink enough of the divine milk before the goddess awoke and flung him away that his immortality was assured. Thus the child was endowed with divine strength. Intent on Herakles’s destruction, Hera sent two serpents to his crib, but the infant grabbed one in each hand and choked them to death.
As a young man Herakles wandered the countryside armed with a club made from a huge olive tree that he pulled from the ground. On one adventure he encountered the ambassadors from Orchomenos who were on their way to collect the annual tribute of one hundred cattle from the city of Thebes. Herakles cut off their noses and ears and sent them back with these as the tribute. The consequence was that Orchomenos sent an army against Thebes, which Herakles single-handedly defeated, thus freeing the Thebans from their oppressors. Kreon, the King of Thebes, gave his daughter Megara to him in gratitude. The couple lived happily for several years until Hera drove him to madness. In a fit of rage he unwittingly killed his own children. Seeking purification for this horrible deed, Herakles sought the Delphic Oracle, who instructed that after completing a period of servitude to Eurystheus, now king of Mycenae, his father would grant him immortality. The king, fearful of the hero’s strength, sent him on a series of twelve labours, each ultimately designed to bring about his death.
Herakles undertook the formidable task of retrieving the golden apples of the Hesperides as his eleventh labour. These apples, symbols of immortality, grew in a hidden garden and were guarded by the Hesperides, the nymph daughters of Atlas, and the fearsome hundred-headed snake Ladon. To find the apples' location, Herakles first sought guidance from the sea god Nereus. Eventually, Herakles encountered Atlas, the Titan condemned to hold up the sky. In a cunning exchange, Herakles offered to temporarily take on Atlas' burden if the Titan would retrieve the apples for him. Atlas agreed, but upon his return, he attempted to leave Herakles with the heavy load permanently. Herakles outwitted him by asking Atlas to hold the sky just long enough to adjust his cloak, and then swiftly took the apples and departed. This labour showcased Herakles's strength, endurance, and cleverness, solidifying his status as a quintessential hero in Greek myth.
Depictions of Herakles in classical art first appeared in Archaic Greece, and as Boardman noted "no god or hero was more widely worshipped through the Greek and Roman world; no god of hero was more often represented in ancient art" (LIMC, IV, p. 728). His winning strength and honest mortal failings provided the perfect model for Greek and Roman rulers to assimilate for their own propaganda. The distinctive facial features of this figure - with heavy, slightly bulbous brow, large eyes and fleshy cheeks - are purely Hellenistic. The treatment of the muscular body can be found in parallels of the Albertini Herakles, for example the statue in the Museo Nazionale, Rome and the gilt statue in the Vatican, Rome (nos. 289 and 302 in Boardman, op. cit.), but here the lionskin is draped over the left arm rather than the shoulder. For a Hellenistic bronze Herakles with well-defined musculature see acc. no. 1805,0703.38, in the British Museum. Closer still to our bronze is a depiction of a statue of Herakles on an Apulian red-figured column-krater in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. 271 in Boardman, op. cit.) where a sculptor attends to the finishing touches by applying color to the lionskin. Here the skin is worn over the shoulder, but the left arm clutches the drapery, the hand emerging. For a youthful Herakles wearing a luxurious wreath see the marble head in the Munich Glyptothek (no. 363 in Boardman, op.cit.).
Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alkmene, the wife of king Amphitryon of Thebes. As his name suggests, his mythology is closely tied with the goddess Hera, Zeus’s wife. When Hera learned of her husband’s infidelity with Alkmene, she set out to plague the child at every stage of his life. As Alkmene was about to give birth, Zeus proclaimed that the first male child born on that day would be destined to become a king. Hearing her husband’s boast, Hera rushed to Argos and persuaded the birth goddess Eleithyia to hasten the arrival of Nikippe’s child to ensure the distinction would not go to Alkmene’s. Her son Eurystheus was born first, and would become the ruler of Argos. He would go on to play a major role in the life of the hero. Alkmene meanwhile, fearful of Hera’s rage, abandoned the infant. The god Hermes rescued him and put him to the breast of the sleeping Hera. Herakles was able to drink enough of the divine milk before the goddess awoke and flung him away that his immortality was assured. Thus the child was endowed with divine strength. Intent on Herakles’s destruction, Hera sent two serpents to his crib, but the infant grabbed one in each hand and choked them to death.
As a young man Herakles wandered the countryside armed with a club made from a huge olive tree that he pulled from the ground. On one adventure he encountered the ambassadors from Orchomenos who were on their way to collect the annual tribute of one hundred cattle from the city of Thebes. Herakles cut off their noses and ears and sent them back with these as the tribute. The consequence was that Orchomenos sent an army against Thebes, which Herakles single-handedly defeated, thus freeing the Thebans from their oppressors. Kreon, the King of Thebes, gave his daughter Megara to him in gratitude. The couple lived happily for several years until Hera drove him to madness. In a fit of rage he unwittingly killed his own children. Seeking purification for this horrible deed, Herakles sought the Delphic Oracle, who instructed that after completing a period of servitude to Eurystheus, now king of Mycenae, his father would grant him immortality. The king, fearful of the hero’s strength, sent him on a series of twelve labours, each ultimately designed to bring about his death.
Herakles undertook the formidable task of retrieving the golden apples of the Hesperides as his eleventh labour. These apples, symbols of immortality, grew in a hidden garden and were guarded by the Hesperides, the nymph daughters of Atlas, and the fearsome hundred-headed snake Ladon. To find the apples' location, Herakles first sought guidance from the sea god Nereus. Eventually, Herakles encountered Atlas, the Titan condemned to hold up the sky. In a cunning exchange, Herakles offered to temporarily take on Atlas' burden if the Titan would retrieve the apples for him. Atlas agreed, but upon his return, he attempted to leave Herakles with the heavy load permanently. Herakles outwitted him by asking Atlas to hold the sky just long enough to adjust his cloak, and then swiftly took the apples and departed. This labour showcased Herakles's strength, endurance, and cleverness, solidifying his status as a quintessential hero in Greek myth.