Roman, 19th century, after the Antique

With Tomasso Brothers, Leeds (United Kingdom), 2012.

The Farnese Hercules, said to have been discovered in the Baths of Caracalla in 1546, was first recorded in Rome in 1556, by Aldrovandi, in the Palazzo Farnese. This monumental ancient marble, generally dated to the early 3rd century AD and bearing the signature of a sculptor named Glycon, is a replica of an earlier Greek prototype attributed to Lysippus or his school. Inherited by the Bourbon kings of Naples, the marble left Rome with the rest of the Farnese collection in 1787, following its restoration by Carlo Albacini (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, inv. 6001).

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, Revised and Amplified Edition by A. Aymonino and E. Dodero, Turnhout, 2024, pp. 342-348.