Italian school of ca. 1900.

Italian school of ca. 1900.
"Hercules and Nessus".
Silver plated bronze.
Measurements: 30 x 20 x 6 cm.

Sculptural group in silver bronze representing the fight between the centaur Nessus and Heracles, a theme that Giambologna had treated in a famous late Renaissance sculpture (now preserved in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria, Florence). The group we show here, like Giambologna's, depicts a fierce struggle between the brute force of the mythological creature and the Greek hero. But the composition presents clear differences: in this version the centaur is not being defeated, bent by Hercules, but is also armed with a spear and both forces seem to be equalized. The sculpture is characterized by a great plastic force expressed in the musculature and the twists of the contenders.

In Greek mythology Nessus was a famous centaur, son of Ixion and Nephele. In a fit of lust, Nessus tried to abduct Deyanira, wife of Herakles, offering her to ride him across the river Evenus. Heracles, from the other side of the river, saw that Deyanira was going to be forced by Nessus, and shot into the chest of the centaur an arrow poisoned with the blood of the Hydra of Lerna, which he had killed, thus fulfilling one of his jobs for Eurystheus. However, in the history of art the subject has been represented as a body-to-body confrontation.