Object Description
358 HERCULES AND THE NEMEAN LION
Hercules stands facing left, head tilted forward and wrestling the lion which he has lifted off the ground. To right Hercules' club leans against edge and a bow and quiver hang from dry tree. Narrow double border.
Bronze, 75 x 56 mm.
This plaquette belongs to a series depicting the exploits of Hercules. This view disagrees with that of Bange, who suggested that Mars and Victory (Bange, no. 466) belongs to the same series. Pope-Hennessy (no. 161) gives a description of the main variants. According to Leeuwenberg and Halsema-Kubes the round version (Kress, no. 161) is the first. This version is thought by Molinier (no. 198) to have been inspired by a coin of Heraclea. Leeuwenberg and Halsema-Kubes think the present version is done after Moderno. The plaquette is found as part of the decoration on a box in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris 1546.
Other specimens: (bronze) Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Berlin, Staatliche Museen; London, Victoria and Albert Museum; Santa Barbara, University Art Gallery, Morgenroth Collection; Washington, National Gallery of Art (Kress Collection); Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Bibl.: Molinier, no. 198; Bange, no. 474; MacLagan, p. 35, no. 316-1889; Planiscig, no. 414; Morgenroth, no. 245; Pope-Hennessy, no. 161 (variant ii); Leeuwenberg, Jaap and Halsema-Kubes, Willy, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, Catalogue, Amsterdam 1973, no. 712. Auction catalog: Lobbecke, no. 708, pl. 38.
