Farnese Hercules
The Farnese Hercules ( Hercules Farnese, Farnese Hercules or the Farnese Hercules ) is an ancient sculpture. It was named after the subject of their presentation, the ancient demigod and hero Hercules, and the place where the statue as a collection piece in modern times was spread, the Farnese collection. It is now exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. More than 200 large-and small -scale replicas and variations of the " Farnese Hercules " from the Roman period show the celebrity who had the statue in antiquity.
Description and assignment
The statue shows the resting after his exploits of Heracles, supported in his left shoulder to his club, which is situated on a cliff above the skin of the Nemean lion. His right arm is bent out to the rear, right hand behind his back and holds the three apples that Hercules had won at the Hesperides. The body is very muscular, represented the hero stiernackig. The head is in proportion to the massive body unterproportioniert small. His gaze is lowered down to his left.
Heracles occurs with both feet fully on, the right leg is slightly set back, the left supporting leg slightly forward. The leg position contrasts chiastically the arm posture and allows for a dormant form an exceptionally expansive impact and twisting of the individual parts of the body. The classical contrapposto, as it was embodied in the work of Polykleitos on vollkommendsten is largely resolved: The game leg put forward, turned his head to the swing leg side, moved the body axis from the center. However, even all this is not new. A 360 BC Herakles statue created in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen already shows all approaches of the composition scheme, but in a much less dramatic, about conducting the art of Hellenism execution.
Among archaeologists, there is agreement that the original of the Farnese Hercules is attributed to the sculptor Lysippos. Strabo reports that a very large lysippische Statue of Hercules by Fabius Maximus after the capture of the city was managed 209 BC from Taranto to Rome and took place on the Capitol lineup. Lysippos created around 320 BC his almost -three-meter colossal figure whose bronze original is lost. Get is a Roman copy of the sculptor Glykon.
Discovery and fate
The copy of the Glykon was found in 1546, inaugurated in 216 AD Baths of Caracalla in Rome and probably made specifically for spas. First, it was discovered only the torso. The head was found separately in Trastevere, in excavations in the Baths and previously lost legs came to light, but were not immediately adjusted because they found the meantime by Guglielmo della Porta, a pupil of Michelangelo, custom built additions so fitting that they as evidence of one's own abilities over time Reserve left on the build. Pope Paul III. let the two colossal figures in the Hofloggia the Palazzo Farnese up. It was only in 1787, when the statue came to Naples, legs and torso were merged.
The figure was an attraction for visitors. Landgrave Charles of Hesse - Kassel, she saw during his trip to Italy 1699/1700 in search of inspiration for designs of the residence city of Kassel. West of the city of Kassel, the Landgrave had erected a large garden. To top it looks since 1717 from the summit of Mount of Charles "Kassel Hercules", a 8.25 m high copy of the " Farnese Hercules " of copper. Goethe mentions the " Farnese Hercules " in his Italian Journey (1786 /88). At this time the King of Naples had the " Farnese Hercules " set up in his residence. Soon after, Napoleon wanted the statue to bring France because it was missing in his newly created collection. In 1799, she was already packed and only the revolution in Naples prevented the removal. Numerous replicas from the 16th to the 18th century found in Europe's parks and gardens lineup.
Another ancient version of almost identical size was found in Rome in 1566 and acquired in 1568 by Grand Duke Cosimo I de ' Medici. On this specimen the head was still replaced in ancient times by a portrait of Emperor Commodus, the statue was distinguished for antiquarians and collectors but by a (now as subsequent addition detected) signature of the sculptor Lysippos, and thus by their supposed authenticity from. Since the late 16th century, this version is in the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti in Florence.