Marble Head of Herakles 1st century CE

This finely carved marble head captures the Greek hero Herakles at his most human moment: exhausted after completing the twelve labors. His noble features are bowed in fatigue, the brow furrowed, the eyes heavy, the full curly beard and hair still powerful. It is a Roman Imperial copy, made in the 1st century CE, of a celebrated Greek bronze statue from the second half of the 4th century BCE attributed to Lysippos. Even as a fragment it conveys the original’s striking contrast between superhuman strength and weary resignation.

From a Lost Bronze Masterpiece to a Roman Workshop

The original bronze was created by Lysippos of Sikyon, court sculptor to Alexander the Great and one of the last great artists of the Classical period. Lysippos is credited with a new, more slender and naturalistic canon of proportions and with giving his figures greater psychological depth. Ancient sources mention a weary Herakles by him at Sikyon or Argos (or both), shown leaning on his club after the final labor—the fetching of the golden apples of the Hesperides. The bronze original is lost, but the type became one of the most frequently copied statues of antiquity. Roman sculptors produced versions in every size, from tiny bronzes to colossal marbles, for baths, gymnasia, and private villas. This particular head belongs to the so-called Farnese type, named after the famous over-life-size marble now in Naples.

Stories of Strength, Fame, and Transformation

Lysippos was so favored by Alexander that the king reportedly allowed no other sculptor to portray him. The weary Herakles type later appealed strongly to Roman emperors; Commodus even had himself depicted in the hero’s guise. The best-known full-size marble copy, the Farnese Hercules, was unearthed in 1546 in the Baths of Caracalla and quickly became one of the most admired statues of the Renaissance. 

A Symbol of Endurance Across Cultures

Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) embodied the ideal of “virtus”—courage, strength, and perseverance in the face of impossible tasks. The weary pose after the last labor added a new, more introspective note: even the greatest hero can be worn down. For the Greeks the statue expressed both physical power and human limitation. For the Romans it decorated spaces of bodily culture and leisure while also serving as a political emblem. The type remained popular into late antiquity and even appeared on coins of the emperor Maximianus Herculius. In this head the visitor sees not only a mythological figure but a meditation on effort, exhaustion, and the cost of glory.

Marble, Measure, and the Sculptor’s Hand

The head is carved from marble, possibly Parian, a high-quality white stone prized in antiquity. Its height is 13 3/8 inches (34.1 cm). The surface shows the typical warm, slightly yellowish patina of ancient marble together with traces of burial staining. The hair and beard are rendered in tight, lively curls; the downward tilt of the head and the modeling of the brow and eyes are especially sensitive. Because the original was bronze, the marble copyist had to translate metallic effects—sharp locks, deeper undercutting—into stone while preserving the weary expression that made the type famous.

Journey to the Metropolitan Museum

The earlier history of this particular piece before the 20th century is not recorded in published sources, as is often the case with objects acquired on the art market in the 1920s. It entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1927, purchased with funds from the Fletcher Fund. That endowment came from the bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher (died 1917), a New York collector whose mansion and collection were left to the museum; the house was later sold and the proceeds used for acquisitions. The head has remained in the museum’s Greek and Roman galleries ever since.