A ROMAN MARBLE STATUE OF THE YOUNG HERCULES
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D. three and a half inches high (£100,000-150,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.,2014.
A rare statue of the young Hercules leads Christie’s sale of Antiquities in London on April 2. A total of 199 lots which span the ancient world from the 3rd Millennium B.C. to the 11th Century A.D. are on offer. The sale expected to realize more than £2 million. The Hercules, formerly in the Roger Peyrefitte (1907-2000) Collection in Paris is estimated at £100,000-150,000. Peyrefitte was a French diplomat and novelist, whose collection, including this piece, was published in 1972. Further highlights include a pair of Egyptian alabaster canopic jars for Tau-Iert-Iru (£50,000 – 70,000) and a Roman marble Fortuna, previously in the collection at Harewood House (£25,000 – 35,000).
The statue shows him wearing the Namean lion skin, which was won in his first labour. The Romans followed the Greek taste for artistic renderings of infants. Depictions of Hercules as an infant abound but there are few representations of him evident as a plump child, as here.