On the Farnese Hercules...
The Greek sculptor Lysippus radically innovated the traditional
iconography of the hero, capturing him not at the moment of
his irresistible triumph against the opponent of the day, but
in an attitude of exhaustion and pensiveness. Wearied by the
effort of shouldering the Earth, while Atlas seeks the three
apples of the Hesperides he is holding behind his back, Hercules
seems to be meditating on the destiny waiting for him at the
end of his twelve labors, conscious of his strength and of
his limits. This explains the great favor enjoyed by this version
as a model for replicas in the Imperial period, when the new
Herculean ideal of Stoic matrix took hold, with the Peloponnesian
hero embodying the moral fortitude of the wise man in the face
of adversities. Lysippus’s type of sculpture, called Farnese
because one of the best replicas belonged to that famed collection,
from the end of the II Century A.D. was even used as a support
for the busts of emperors, desirous of presenting themselves
to their subjects as philanthropic rulers prostrated by the
weight of command, exercised for the wellbeing of mankind.
This is not the case though of the Florentine statue, until
1787 at Villa Medici in Rome, that has neither the extremely
tumid muscularity nor the gigantic size of some of the copies
of Antonine Age. On the whole, the Uffizi replica seems to
represent the leanness that characterized the lost bronze IV-Century-BC
archetype, with a pensive face transpiring the spiritual weariness
of the melancholic hero imagined by Lysippus.
The cleaning
has been gradual and differentiated in consideration of the
composite nature of the sculpture and of the different chromatic
alterations due to the coherent deposits on the surface. The
initial phase, carried out with cotton swabs moistened with
deionized water and turpentine essence, revealed numerous putty
repairs of preceding interventions. These had largely lost
their bond and changed the color and it was necessary to mechanically
remove them using a scalpel. After carrying out a detailed
mapping of fractures and tassels, new putties were applied
using a mortar based on marble dust and natural pigments. Finally,
where the existing patina did not ensure adequate protection,
a micro-crystalline coat was applied. |