LOT 0166

Life-Size Roman Bronze Club from a Statue of Hercules

1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

21 5/8 in. (4.73 kg total, club: 55 cm).

Hollow-formed life-size club with tubular handle and flared rim, shank with series of regularly-placed knop projections on piriform pads, domed end; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Formerly in North American collection, 1990s.
From an Austrian collection, acquired in London from UK collector in early 2000s.
From a London gentleman's collection, 2000s.

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 search certificate number no.12345-225411.

Cf. Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence XVIII, Paris, 1965, no.100, for a figure with similar example; for the iconography of Hercules with such club see Reinach, S., Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, Paris, 1897, p.207, no.8, 208, nos.6,8; the typology is the one of the Hercules Capitolino (Capitolini Museums, inv. MC1265) or Farnese, where the hero is resting upon his club, see Reinach, 1897, pp.209ff.; Haskell, F., and Penny, N., Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, Yale, 1981, p.227, Cat.no.45.

Like the famous statue of Hercules in gilded bronze (the so called Hercules from the Forum Boarium), today at the Capitoline Museums (Palazzo dei Conservatori), this club would have come from a temple dedicated to the Greek hero. The Mastai Hercules, at the Vatican Museum, shows a similar club. The presence of a large handle in our piece confirms that the club was held with the right hand in resting position, and that the typology of Hercules was probably one of the two models.