LOT 0149

Etrusco-Italic Bronze Figure of Young Hercules

ARCHAIC STYLE, CIRCA 4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.

4 5/8 in. (307 grams, 12 cm).

Modelled in the round figure standing in advancing pose with the right hand raised and fist clenched; left shoulder and arm covered with the skin of the Nemean lion and left hand modelled hollow; hair cut short and textured.

Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12515-232159.

Cf. similar figure in the Getty Museum under reference 96.AB.36, Metropolitan Museum of Art under object number: 96.9.419; Reinach, S., Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, Paris, 1897, p.105-108, for the archaic prototypes and similar statuettes; Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, items 85-95, for type, especially nos.85-87.

There were several cult sites of Hercules in Etruria and old Latium, particularly in the Sabellian region, and the bronze statuettes discovered here exhibit a wide range of styles. Etruscan bronzes of the half-god usually represent him with the lion skin draped over his arm (Metropolitan accession number 96.9.419).