Object Description
407 HERCULES AND OMPHALE
The nude couple sit under a large tree in which three amoretti play. Hercules, with a distaff and spindle, leans toward Omphale, who holds a distaff in her left hand.
Bronze, dark patina, 84 x 106 mm. Hole at top.
This series includes five representations of mythological lovers: Luna and Endymion, Hercules and Omphale, Mars and Venus, Jupiter and Io, and Venus and Adonis.
Other specimens: (bronze) Basel, Historisches Museum; Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Bibl.: Braun, E. W., Die Bronzen der Sammlung Guido von Rho in Wien, Vienna 1908, pl. 49, f.; Planiscig-Este, no. 436, pl. 27. Auction catalogs: Dupriez, Brussels, Catalog 112, 7 April 1913, no. 2977a; Dorotheum, Vienna, Catalog 339, 22-24 March 1923, pl. 48.