Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
Herakles stands with feet slightly spread, left foot forward. The stance does not indicate true movement. His right arm is upraised, holding a knobbed club behind his head. His left arm is held out from the shoulder and draped with a stylized lion skin with a curvilinear border; this lion skin, with paws, mane, and face indicated, is much more detailed than the lion skins on other Herakles statuettes in Harvard’s collection, such as 1920.44.100, 2002.60.40, and 2012.1.9. The molded musculature of this statuette is quite naturalistic in comparison with the other examples. The facial features are small and proportionate, with a thin nose, brow indicated, ears and eyelids molded, and a dimple in the chin. There is a diadem around the uncovered head. The hair is stylized and depicted in straight rows.
Statuettes showing Herakles in an attacking stance like this are very common in the ancient world (1). The god may have had a connection with cultivation in early Italy (2).
NOTES:
1. See A. Leibundgut, Die römischen Bronzen der Schweiz 3: Westchweiz, Bern, und Wallis (Mainz, 1980) 181-82, no. 278; A.-M. Adam, Bronzes étrusques et italiques (Paris, 1984) 180-92, nos. 271-95; and A. Naso, I bronzi etruschi e italici del Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 33 (Mainz, 2003) 37-43, nos. 48-61, 63-64, and 66-67, pls. 21-24.
2. S. J. Schwarz, “Herakles/Hercle,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae 5.1: 196-253, esp. 197; F. van Wonterghem, “Le culte d’Hercule chez les Paeligni documents anciens et nouveaux,” L’Antiquité classique 42.1 (1973): 36-48; F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei, und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 56-69, nos. 61-89, pls. 21-28.
Jane A. Scott and Lisa M. Anderson
