Roman Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York -- ERACLE (Gift of Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson, 1903) -- ERCOLE GIUSTINIANI -- excavated in the remains of the public baths -- near the PANTHEON -- constructed under NERONE in A. D. 62.

Speranza

Marble statue of ERCOLE
Period: Early Imperial, Flavian
Date: 69–96 A.D.
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble, Island ?
Dimensions: H. 246.9 cm)
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson, 1903
Accession Number: 03.12.13
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 162


The restorations to this old Roman statue made during the early 17th century include the head and neck, right arm below the shoulder, left arm and shoulder, right leg below the knee, left leg, tree trunk, club, and plinth.

This ERCOLE statue is part of the Collection of antiquities acquired in Rome by the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani during the first third of the seventeenth century.

The ERCOLE must have been made as one of a pair with the over-life-sized statue of a bearded ERCOLE displayed across the courtyard.

Both may have been excavated in the remains of public baths originally constructed under the emperor NERONE in A.D. 62, which were located in the vicinity of the Pantheon.

References
Picon, C. A., et al. 2007.
"Art of the Classical world in The Metropolitan Museum of Art."
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Illustration No. 451, pp. 386. Note on p. 494.