An inconspicuous Heracles

Even a four-meter-tall bronze statue of Hercules may remain unnoticed among the many treasures of the Vatican Museum in Rome. It represents Heracles (Hercules), resting on his club, with the lion skin over his arm and holding the apple of Hesperides in his left hand.

 

[Picture from Museo Vaticano]

The so-called Hercules Mastai Righetti (Mastai after the ruling Pope, and Righetti after the banker) stood in a niche at the museum’s Round Hall. It had been discovered beneath the courtyard of the Palazzo Pio Righetti in 1864 during works on the Campo dei Fiori in Rome. 

Presently, restorers have removed the dark coat of wax and other material from the 19th-century restoration. The layer of dirt and grime hid the beauty of the original gilded statue from view. As a result, this Heracles now appears in all its splendor making the archaeologists understand this is one of the most significant statues of its time.

 

They agree that the original gilding is exceptionally well-preserved. The skill displayed by the smelters to fuse mercury to gold made the gilded surface more enduring. It is the best example of compact and solid gilding ever encountered.

 

It is one of the Roman masterpieces from between the end of the 1^st century and the beginning of the 3^rd century AD, maybe inspired by an Attic school model from 390-370 BC.

 

The statue had been buried with the ritual remains of a lamb. It was found in a trench covered by a travertine slab that carried an inscription FCS, “Fulgur Conditum Summanium”, meaning “here is buried a Summanian thunderbolt”. Summanus was the ancient Roman god of nocturnal thunder and this means that the statue had been struck by lightning. As lightning was a divine force, the Romans believed that the statue was imbued with divinity. It was buried in a marble shrine at the very spot where it was hit. Divine forces occupied the place of burial and the place where the statue was hit by lighting.

 

Taking their belief a step further, the Romans said that an object struck by lightning generated love and also eternity. They were right in this case as Heracles remained hidden for over fifteen hundred years (an eternity in its own right).

 

The last task for the restorers is to repair the missing pieces that had been filled with plaster in the 19^th century. Nowadays, they use resin instead. The restoration is expected to be completed by the end of this year after which the shiny Heracles will return to the museum.