Thursday 9 April 2009

The Farnese Hercules

The Farnese Hercules is an ancient sculpture, probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD by Glykon of an original of Lysippos or one of his circle, of the fourth century BC., made for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome (dedicated in 216 AD), where it was recovered in 1546.

The heroically-scaled Hercules is one of the most famous sculptures of Antiquity, and has fixed the image of the mythic hero in the European imagination. It quickly made its way into the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III. Alessandro Farnese was well placed to form one of the greatest collections of classical sculpture that has been assembled since Antiquity.

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