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Bronze statuette of Herakles

ca. 500–475 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 170
The exquisitely modeled lion-skin knotted about this figure's waist identifies Hercle (Herakles). He probably once held a club in his raised right hand; vestiges of another object are preserved on his left knee. The figure probably decorated a bronze tripod of the type made at Vulci. Herakles may have been represented with Apollo, his opponent in their struggle for the sacred Delphic Tripod, a favorite subject in Greek and Etruscan art in the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C. and one especially appropriate for a tripod.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bronze statuette of Herakles
  • Period: Archaic
  • Date: ca. 500–475 BCE
  • Culture: Etruscan, Cività Castellana
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: Diam.: 3 1/16 in. (7.8 cm)
  • Classification: Bronzes
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1912
  • Object Number: 12.229.4
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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