AFTER ANTONIO CANOVA, CAST BY DELAFONTAINE, LATE 19TH CENTURY

This bronze reduction is after the original marble (335cm. high) now in the Galleria Nazionale d' Arte, Rome. Canova started this dramatic and complex commission in 1795, finally completing the work for a different client and to great acclaim in 1815. It captures the moment and action of Hercules hurling the innocent messager, Lichas, to death, after he hands over a poisoned robe, which is drapped across Hercules' lower torso. See Canova, Fred Licht, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, 1983, fig.182.