Head of Hercules

3rd–2nd century B.C.

Medium

Marble

Dimensions

30.5 × 21.5 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-217112

Signs of age mark this head from a statue of Herakles. Prominent facial features include a horizontal furrow in the middle of the forehead, furrows on the bridge of the nose, crow’s feet, and sagging cheeks. The statue to which this head belonged was likely one of two well-known types that depicted Herakles as an older, bearded figure. One of the best known representations of the aged hero is referred to as the "weary Herakles" or the "Farnese" type after the most famous copy, once in the Farnese collection and now in the Museo Nazionale in Naples. In this version, Herakles stands leaning on his club, exhausted from his labors. The second type, referred to as “Herakles at rest,” shows the hero reclining on his lion’s skin with a wine cup. Both of these depictions became popular in the Hellenistic period and were widely reproduced. Small-scale versions of the weary Herakles copied the life-size bronze statue made in the late fourth century B.C. by the Greek sculptor Lysippos (active about 370-315 B.C.). Depictions of Herakles reclining are attested as early as the sixth century BC, but the sculptural type was introduced only in the fourth century BC.