Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
Herakles strides with his left foot forward. The left knee is slightly bent; the right leg is straight except for a slight bend at the knee. Both heels are pointed and the feet are flat. The figure is nude except for a schematic triangular lion skin draped over the left arm, which is held out at waist level. There is no indication of fingers; the molded thumb is disproportionately large, and there appears to be something held in the hand (perhaps part of the lion skin), which is a variant of this statue type. The right arm is raised, brandishing a club (now missing) behind his head. The anatomy of the figure is very schematic and stylized, lacking defined musculature. An incised cross on the torso indicates the pectorals. There is an incised line on the back, and the buttocks are modeled. The face is round; the eyelids are circles, the nose is very pointed, and the mouth is small. The head is uncovered; the hair is indicated by a series of ridges.
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.-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.
Lisa M. Anderson
