Herman Vilhelm Bissen (1798-1868), having trained initially in Copenhagen, went to Rome in 1824 and joined Thorwaldsen's workshop and became Thorwaldsen's principal assistant. Bissen holds an important position in the history of Danish sculpture, and is considered second only to Thorwaldsen. He continued the Neo-Classical tradition of his master, tempering it with his own realism particularly form the 1850s. Bissen was enormously influential, both through his own prolific output and through his role as professor at the Academy in Copenhagen.
Bissen worked on several public commissions, including from 1838 a series of 18 figures of famous women from mythology and Danish history for the queen's staircase in the Royal Palace of Christianborg in Copenhagen, figures of Frederik VI and Frederik VII and his The Private Soldier of 1850-52 for Fredericia. The Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen has a fine collection of his mythological marble figures dating from the 1840s onwards. Bissen also executed reliefs, as had his master Thorwaldsen, most notably his frieze of Bacchus and Ceres Bringing the Gifts of Culture to Humanity of 1835-41 for the Palace of Christiansborg. The present fine relief is an early work, dating to Bissen's years in Rome, and strongly reflecting his Neo-Classical style. The subject matter, one celebrated in Antique works, tells of the infant Hercules strangling two poisonous serpents sent by his jealous mother Juno. Iphicles, Hercules' half-brother, witnesses the scene and cowers in fear and astonishment as Hercules throttles the snakes with ease. Though Antique in inspiration, Bissen's relief rises above mere imitation and transforms the Classical source into a the softened Neo-Classicism typical of Thorwaldsen and his followers. It was acquired in 1834 for 400KR in the Charlottenborg Kunstforeningen.