Seated Heracles on the Lion Skin
Unknown (Roman, after Lysippos) (Lysippos active c. 370-310 BC) · 100-150 AD (?)
A headless torso of Heracles sits on his lion skin, spread over a rock, with the remains of the club beside him. The head, arms, legs and genitals are lost, but part of both feet survives on the rock, and the lion's muzzle can still be made out despite its chips. A socket in the right arm shows that a separate piece, probably the forearm, was once attached. The marble is coarse grained, and the modelling of the torso, with its heavy chest and softened belly, gives the hero a weary rather than triumphant air.
The pose is that of the Heracles Epitrapezios, the resting hero created by Lysippos as a small bronze for Alexander and copied throughout the Roman world. This example is dated to the first half of the second century AD and is said to have been made and found at Smyrna, present day Izmir, on the coast of Asia Minor. It entered the Louvre in 1845 under King Louis Philippe. Compare it with the Carrara marble version of the same type nearby, and notice how the lion skin here replaces the bare rock as the hero's seat.
Did You Know? Even without head, arms or legs, the lion skin under the hero is enough to name him: only Heracles sits on his trophy.
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