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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1992.256.92
Title
Herakles
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
1st-3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Anatolia
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304529

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mixed copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
9 x 4.2 x 2.6 cm (3 9/16 x 1 5/8 x 1 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Mixed Copper Alloy:
Cu, 90.05; Sn, 4.52; Pb, 2.12; Zn, 2.44; Fe, 0.19; Ni, 0.09; Ag, 0.04; Sb, 0.14; As, 0.42; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The surface is a very uneven green and brown with tan burial deposits. The object is intact, but the surface is very poorly preserved. Modern tool marks are also evident.

The figure was solid cast by lost-wax casting. There is an unfinished seam line running down the proper right leg. Surface details are too poorly preserved to find information about working after casting.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Louise M. and George E. Bates, Camden, ME (by 1971-1992), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1992.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Louise M. and George E. Bates
Accession Year
1992
Object Number
1992.256.92
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
An example of one of the several standard representation types of Herakles, this figure stands upon a semicircular base with his weight placed primarily on his right leg and with his left leg extending forward. He rests his right hand on one end of his club. The skin of the Nemean Lion, a trophy of his first labor, drapes over his extended left arm. His left hand may have held the fruits of his eleventh labor, the apples of the Hesperides. Such images of Herakles also show the figure holding a bow in the left hand (1). Like a similar and well-preserved marble sculpture of Herakles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the bronze statuette may have been inspired by a Greek bronze original dating to about 450 BCE and credited to the sculptor Myron (2).

NOTES:

1. For Herakles in this general stance, see Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Herakles nos. 271-542, esp. nos. 292, 294, 403, 461-62, 477-78, 525, and 527; for images of this Herakles type on coinage, see nos. 519-20.

2. For the marble Herakles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no. 14.733), see M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, 1976) 89-90, no. 139, with extensive bibliography; and G. Chase, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art: The Classical Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, rev. by C. C. Vermeule (Boston, 1963) 86 and 98, no. 78.


Aaron J. Paul

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Roman Domestic Art

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu