The Capitoline Hercules

Young Hercules, after Brucciani.

An impressive plaster figure of Hercules, standing 82cm high on his original stepped circular socle. The hero is shown striding forward in contrapposto, weight on the left leg, still gripping the broken shaft of his club in the right hand and the three apples of the Hesperides in the left. The head is youthful and closely curled, while the powerful torso, broad shoulders and deeply modelled back clearly echo the great antique statues of the Capitoline and Farnese Hercules.

Cast in chalky white plaster with a dry, matte surface, the figure shows the expected small knocks, scuffs and casting seams of a working studio or art-school piece, all of which now read as part of its charm. Probably learly 20th century, in the tradition of D. Brucciani & Co., the London firm that supplied museums and academies with casts of the antique.

A properly scale presence on a console or pedestal, somewhere between an academic teaching model and a country-house sculpture