
A 19th century Grand Tour carved alabaster Farnese Hercules.
Height : 35.5cm
Italian circa 1880
Old repair to the right hand.
The Farnese Hercules depicts a muscular Hercules leaning on his club, which is draped with the skin of the Nemean lion. In myth, killing the lion was his first task. He holds the apples of the Hesperides behind his back as he has just performed one of the last of The Twelve Labours. The enlarged original Roman version of this sculpture was made for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, where it was discovered in 1546; it is now in the Naples Museum.