Hellenistic Greek Bronze Figure of Hercules Farnese

Herakles, as a mortal being, famously accomplished his Twelve Labors upon earth and therefore was welcomed into the company of Olympian gods where he enjoyed a blissful existence for all time. Of all the Greek gods and heroes, he became one of the most frequently represented figures in antiquity and achieved an enduring place in the history of art. This particularly famous image presents Herakles standing in a contrapposto position with his weight on the right leg and his left leg relaxed; his right arm is bent at the elbow with the forearm placed behind his back at the waist; his left arm extended downward and away from his side. The robust torso and limbs are heavily muscled and reflect the superior physical strength of Herakles, while his relaxed pose expresses the fatigue experienced by this superhuman hero after completing his various challenges. The hero’s head looks downward to the left and is encircled by a particular type of rolled fillet, the Hellenistic diadem. The diadem was made popular by Alexander the Great and he was the first Macedonian ruler to wear it as an emblem of kingship. Subsequently it was worn by the rulers who followed him to establish the dynasties of the Hellenic world. The wearing of the diadem was also in keeping with a Hellenistic custom of combining divine attributes with the royal image. This precedent can also be traced back to Alexander whose image came to be associated with Herakles. Alexander was assimilated with the god Herakles on coins issued during the ruler’s own lifetime, and his posthumous portraits sometimes represent him wearing the lion scalp of Herakles.

This bronze statuette of Herakles embodies the Classical tradition and, like its close parallel in the collection of the Walters Art Museum, is among the earliest known replicas of a sculptural type called the Weary Herakles or Hercules Farnese, which is named after the famous version first recorded as being in the Palazzo Farnese in 1556. Now in the National Museum in Naples, this gigantic figure of Herakles was enormously admired from the time of its discovery ten years earlier in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. The original large-scale work is attributed to the great 4^th century B. C. sculptor, Lysippos, who is also noted for being the official court sculptor of Alexander the Great. Early in his career Lysippos was an artist with a strong sense of the classical style while also being an innovative sculptor concerned with the appearance of his works – particularly with the emotional or psychological effect that his work had upon viewers. Likely the most creative and influential sculptor of the Hellenistic period, he created new monuments and stylistic innovations that would be used for centuries to follow. Lysippos occupies a unique position in the history of Western sculpture since he was a late Classical sculptor and a contemporary of Praxiteles, as well as one of the creators of the Hellenistic style.

Undoubtedly with his famous patron, Alexander the Great, in mind, Lysippos created the life-sized or over life-sized bronze original showing Herakles leaning on his club. Ancient copies of the original sculpture allow us to envision the famous creation of Lysippos as Herakles leans upon the club over which is draped the Nemean lion skin from his first Labor. The apples of the Hesperides, the fruits of his last Labor, were held in the hand behind his back. The hero’s fatigue must have been intentionally accentuated by the contrast between his powerful physique and the manner in which he rested upon his club. According to one version of the myth, the hero is exhausted after defeating the monstrous serpent that guarded the apple tree, or following the other tradition, because he had agreed to support the heavens on his shoulders while the giant Atlas traveled to the ends of the world to procure the apples.

The Weary Herakles must have been cast about the time of Alexander’s death and the original or a version of it set up in the Greek city of Sikyon because the writer Pausanias (Description of Greece 2, 9.8) recorded that he had seen there a statue of Herakles made by Lysippos. The motif appears on Sikyonian coins of the late 4^th and early 3^rd centuries B. C. Early in the Hellenistic period a version of the sculpture was made for Athens, and around 200 B. C. a copy was fashioned for Pergamon in Asia Minor. Versions of the sculpture and later derivations were all copies in various media and on a scale from the colossal to the miniature, including coins. In light of the close relationship between Lysippos and Alexander and Alexander’s identification of himself with Herakles, it is likely that the Weary Herakles referred to Alexander’s accomplishments and the prosperity that ensued in the lands that he conquered. Like the mortal Herakles welcomed into Olympos, Alexander’s legacy was intertwined with that of this hero that achieved the status of a deity.

As the noted scholar of ancient sculpture, Cornelius Vermeule, pointed out, toward the end of antiquity, and even sooner, the Weary Herakles became more than just a decorative figure for gymnasia and baths. The Herakles created by Lysippos stood as a symbol of the cares – imperial, civic, and spiritual – which the pagan ancients and their Judeo-Christian successors carried on their shoulders. This sentiment must have been part of the experience from the first venue of the sculpture in the 4^th century B. C., when this magnificent work inspired its ancient admirers and forever established its fame. As an indication of how much the ancients were impressed by the Lysippic Herakles, the sculptural motif had few peers over the six hundred years of Greek and Roman art. The Weary Herakles, as a motif for freestanding sculpture, relief, and painting, influenced the perceptions of artists and patrons from the time of Alexander the Great to the end of pagan antiquity. As a constant yet adaptable theme, the Weary Herakles moved beyond the art of the ancient world and into the Middle Ages to become a major symbolic factor in the Renaissance and later humanistic epochs – an appreciation that resonates into our own time.

Surface worn, corroded; oxidation; lower arms and legs broken off.

Ex – S.A. private collection, acquired 8 May 1994.

Mnemosyne: de Chirico and Antiquity.  Helly Nahmad Gallery and Phoenix Ancient Art, New York, 4 November 2015 – 30 January 2016.

Gstaad palace, Gstaad, 12-17 February 2016.

Galerie Rauchfeld, Paris, 10-18 September 2016.

Phoenix Ancient Art, Geneva, 3 November 2016 – 31 January 2017.

The Treasure House Fair, Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, 2024

HASKELL F., PENNY N., Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, New Haven, 1981, pp. 96-97, fig. 57; pp. 229-232, fig. 118; for the history of the Herakles Farnese.

MORENO P., Lisippo: l’arte e la fortuna, Milan, 1995, pp. 51-56, 103-110, 242-250; for images of the Weary Herakles (“Eracle in riposo”) in marble, bronze, and on coinage, see especially Figure 4.4.1 (p. 51) showing an early depiction of the Weary Herakles on a tetradrachm from Argos, circa 290 B. C., which was issued during the rule of Demetrios Poliorketes.

POLLITT J., Art in the Hellenistic Age, New York, 1986, pp. 47-58, fig. 41; for Lysippos and the Herakles Farnese.

REEDER H., Hellenistic Art in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1988, pp. 126-127, no. 44, for the early 3^rd century B. C. bronze statuette of the Weary Herakles, Walters Art Museum acc. no. 54.1005.

VERMEULE C. C., The Weary Herakles of Lysippos, in American Journal of Archaeology 79, 1975, pp. 323-332, pls. 51-55; Vermeule lists four groups of copies of the original sculpture, including those closest to the original and Hellenistic modifications.