Guess the Artwork

Eracle - Hercules - Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican Museums 

This is a gilded bronze statue of a young Hercules leaning on a club, with the apples of the Hesperides in his left hand. 

It was found in 1864 in the courtyard of Palazzo Pio Righetti, near Campo de' Fiori in the area of the Theatre of Pompeo, and shortly after it was donated to Pope Pius IX. 

They found it buried with the bones of a sacrifical lamb and covered with a slab of travertine with the letters FCS (Fulgur Conditum Summanium) engraved on it. This means that the statue of Hercules had been struck by lightning because  according to a Roman custom, people and objects struck by lightning were not burnt, but buried on the spot, which was called Bidental, and was considered sacred.

 The statue, was restored by Pietro Tenerani. 

 

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