Film
From the drama of Notre Dame de Paris to the lighter and funnier Hercules, it still manages to maintain a certain solemnity in its themes. After all, there is talk of gods, of monstrous scourges that threaten humanity, of a woman who has made a pact with the king of the underworld, of a man who aspires to become immortal. In short, there was all the material for a Greek tragedy that the Muses manage to lighten up with their Gospel songs and choruses, aided by the strong comic vein that permeates the whole film thanks to the characters of Hades and Phil. The character design adapts to this humorous dimension, preferring to the naturalistic cut of the previous films a more cartoony, angular and caricatured one that pays homage to the vascular paintings of ancient Greece. The Hydra scene deserves a separate mention, made exclusively in CGI, which despite being one of the first integrations between the two techniques stands the test of time very well.
Art in the opening
More than being a film set in ancient Greece, Hercules is an art history book in motion. There are so many artistic references and quotations in this film that it is impossible to list them all in a few lines, it would deserve a separate in-depth study. In this site there are no less than two parts, trying to clearly recount all the quotations and offer the possibility of seeing each work live. Quotations to Greek art, but not only, because on more than a few occasions the animators have taken poetic licences. This is the case of Jason with the Golden Fleece, a marble sculpture by the artist Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1803, or Frederic Leighton's athlete fighting the python, dating from 1877. We see these sculptures in the overture gallery, when the camera takes us through the most famous landmarks of sculptural art ever: these include the Athena of Piraeus (360-340 BC), the Crouching Aphrodite (3rd BC), some details of the pediment and frieze of the Parthenon (40 BC), the Venus de Medici (1st BC. BC), figures from the pediment of the Temple of Aphaia (V BC), an Athena with an owl (V BC), the Doriphorus (II BC), the Pasquin group (IV BC) and Kleobi and Biton (585 BC). Closing the sculpture gallery is a small room of vases decorated according to Hellenic taste. In particular, our gaze lingers on a black-figure vase depicting Hercules fighting the Nemean lion in one of his twelve labours. The decoration is from the Castellani Amphora, preserved in the Capitoline Museums in Rome (6th BC). Below we see it in detail.
Piraeus Athena (360 BC - 340 BC) | Piraeus Archaeological Museum
In 1959, workers drilling the ground to install pipes discovered this 2.35 m high cult statue together with three other large bronze statues and artefacts from the 4th century BC. Historians believe the work to be an original by Cephisodotus or Euphranor, or a Classical-style creation from the Hellenistic period. Initially placed in the sanctuary of Zeus Soter, it was later preserved in the stoa of the harbour following an attack by the Romans. Today it is preserved in the Piraeus Archaeological Museum in excellent condition, despite irreparable damage over time.
The Crouching Venus (1st century AD) | More locations
A bronze sculpture by Doidalsa, dating from around 250 BC, which portrayed Aphrodite in a highly original pose: crouching as she is about to receive the water of the sacred bath, developing the idea of Praxiteles' Aphrodite cnidia. Today known only from Roman copies, the best of which is the armless marble one on display in the Roman National Museum in Palazzo Massimo in Rome. Other copies can be admired:
- Louvre Museum in Paris, in a headless and armless version from Sainte Colombe;
- The British Museum in London, a complete but inferior version (Lely version) and comes from the Gonzaga collections;
- Galleria degli Uffizi, in a version with a head to be restored and datable to the 1st century, from the Villa Medici.
Eastern section of the Parthenon frieze (5th BC) | Acropolis Museum of Athens.
This sculptural relief reproduces a fragment of the imposing Parthenon Frieze, located atop the Acropolis in Athens, one of the greatest architectural monuments of Greek civilisation. A creation commissioned by Pericles (447 - 432 BC) and realised by the Greek architects Ictinus and Callicrates, under the supervision of Phidias. Carved entirely on large slabs of Pentelic marble by Phidias and his pupils, the long frieze decorated the entire outer perimeter of the cell of the famous temple. On it were depicted scenes and characters related to panathenaic processions. In this fragment we see four deities comfortably seated on stools conversing after turning their backs on the central scene of the dedication of the panathenaic peplos depicted in Block V. First from the left is Poseidon, next to him are seated Apollo, his sister Artemis and Aphrodite.
Statue of Dionysus, east pediment of the Parthenon (447–433 BC.) | British Museum
Also from the Parthenon, but this time from the eastern pediment, comes this sculpture of Dionysus or Bacchus preserved in the British Museum. Inspired by what Napoleon had done shortly before, who had brought distinguished works of Italian art to Paris, in 1801 the British diplomat Lord Elgin also decided to remove the Parthenon marbles from Athens and many of its sculptures to England, where they were then purchased by the British Museum. The collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities currently occupies 13 rooms in the west wing on the ground floor of the great London museum and is arranged chronologically from the Bronze Age to the Roman Imperial period.
Statue of a philosopher (3rd BC) | Delphi Archaeological Museum
In one of the niches on the wall behind Dionysus, a sculpture can be glimpsed that assumes the pose of the Greek poet or philosopher discovered in Rome in 1876 in the area of Villa Aldobrandini (Quirinale) and now part of the Capitoline Museums, exhibited in the Centrale Montemartini in Rome. Of the same prototype is the statue preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi.
Kouros of Melos or “Milo” (560-550 BC) | National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Next to the philosopher of Delphi is what is perhaps the most iconic sculpture of the period: the Kouros of Milos. A perfect example of a 6th-century kouros linked to the Ionian current, it stands out from the hardness of the Doric-Peloponnesian one for its more elegant and slender figure, with greater agility and more subtle anatomical definition. The pose is in fact the sect of the other kouroi, votive statues representing young men, but his head is more gracile and his body less square, more harmonious and slender. What characterises him is the absence of a beard, his hair wrapped in braids and his slightly parted lips.
Capitoline Venus (4th century BC) | Capitoline Museums, Rome.
A Roman copy of a Greek original, the Capitoline Venus is inspired, like the other variants of the theme, by Praxiteles' Aphrodite cnidia, with particular similarities to the Venus de' Medici, which, although datable to a later period than the Capitoline prototype, is a Greek original. The work depicts Venus in the bath, in the demure position, bending slightly over herself to cover her pubis and breasts with her hands and arms. Next to her is a cloth resting on a tall amphora. The hairstyle is rather peculiar, with hair knotted both at the nape of the neck and on the head, in the form of a bow. Several preserved copies of the Capitoline type are known:
- Hermitage and
During the Napoleonic campaign in Italy (in 1797) the statue was taken to Paris at the behest of General Napoleon and then returned to Rome in 1815. Since then it has been exhibited in the Capitoline Museums, where it is still kept today, thanks to Canova's intervention after the Congress of Vienna.
Pinakes di Locri: Hermes, messenger of the gods, and Aphrodite (5th BC) | MArRC – Museo Magna Grecia di Reggio Calabria.
Terracotta votive tablets, bearing various bas-relief representations of the social and religious life of ancient Locri Epizephyrii. The famous Locrian Pinakes date back to the 5th century B.C. and represent one of the numerically largest artistic productions of Magna Graecia art, as well as a unique testimony to a complex of popular devotion. They are small terracotta squares of modest size (no more than 30 cm in length and height and about 1 cm thick) produced locally, starting from a matrix in which the design was made in negative and on which the unbaked clay slab was pressed so as to present, after firing, the same subject in positive, enlivened by a vivid polychromy of which traces remain in several specimens. The resulting tablets were intended to be suspended, through holes visible on the upper edge, from the walls of the temenos or even from the trees of a sacred grove as devotional offerings. Those shown in the film in particular represent Hermes, messenger of the gods, meeting Aphrodite, goddess of beauty.
Owls are animals devoted to Athena, goddess of wisdom and the arts. For centuries, the main coinage of Athens showed the head of Athena on one side and an owl on the other, testifying to their symbolic bond. In this bronze statuette from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, dating back to 460 BC, the goddess is portrayed relaxed and ready to fly mate. While it would appear to be a life-size sculpture in the drawing, the one you can see at the MET is no taller than 15 cm.
Artemision Bronze (470-440 BC) | National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Unlike the earlier bronze statue of Athena, which has considerably altered in size, The Chronid of Cape Artemisius is a bronze statue measuring 209 cm and is portrayed more or less life-size. It dates from around 480-470 BC and is preserved in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. It was found in the seabed off Cape Artemisius, in present-day Euboea, and is one of the very few original bronze works that have come down to us. It is unclear what the statue was holding in its right hand, whether a thunderbolt or a trident (it would therefore be a figure of Zeus or Poseidon, respectively, both sons of Cronos, hence the name Chronides), or something else. In any case, the bearded face with the finely chiselled hairstyle is typical of statues of gods.
Herakles archer and Warrior, east pediment of the temple of Aphaia in Aegina (485-480) | Glyptothek Munich
The Temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina had a richly decorated pediment, the sculptural groups on both the east and west sides of which are preserved in the Gliptoteca in Munich, restored and reassembled by the Danish neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Both pediments show in the centre the figure of the goddess Athena (to whom Aphaia was assimilated), and on the sides groups of fighters, with the corners of the pediment occupied by fallen warriors and abandoned weapons, representing the Trojan exploits of local heroes. The film's introduction shows us two details of the eastern pediment: a soldier in an offensive position and the archer Heracles, heavily crouched on his heels and kneeling in the act of shooting an arrow. The latter stands out for his expressiveness and the vigour with which he performs the gesture. A small temple, perhaps unknown to most, but which shows us how, in Greek art, the revolution began with the naturalism of the human body.
Boxer at Rest (330/50 BC) | Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Also known as Boxer at Rest or Boxer of the Quirinal, this is probably the statue exhibited in Rome that is best known and appreciated by US tourists, especially those from New York and Los Angeles, where it has been hosted for four years with great media hype. Dating from the second half of the 4th century BC and attributed to Lysippus or his immediate circle, it depicts a seated boxer, probably caught in a moment of rest after a bout. The hands are protected by the type of gauntlets referred to as Himantes Oxeis, large and complex combat gloves introduced into boxing practice from the 4th century BC: the four fingers are threaded through a heavy ring consisting of three leather bands held together by metal studs.
A bronze sculpture that is known in several versions and replicas (in bronze, marble, plaster) and of which the Galleria Nazionale in Rome also has a copy. The earliest, however, is the bronze sculpture presented at the Royal Academy in 1877 and now in the Tate Britain. Leighton himself declared that the idea for the Athlete came to him during the creation of another work (Daphnephoria), taking that occasion to investigate the theme of the male nude in heroic, old-fashioned tension. The inspiration is obviously classical and Renaissance art, Michelangelo in particular is always at the basis of Leighton's poetic imagination.
The Doryphoros (440 BC) | MANN - Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
The mid-fifth-century marble sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples is the best Roman copy, found in Pompeii, of an original bronze Doriphoros from the classical period, executed by Polyclitus and dating from around 440 BC. Many will remember this work for the famous canon devised by Polyclitus based on the relationships between the different parts of the human body: the sculptor set himself the problem of how best to represent reality by considering natural observation combined with rational and abstract reworking, establishing that the head is 1/8 of the body, the torso 3/8 while the legs 1/2. The modelling of the Doriforo's musculature follows the movements of the limbs perfectly, one notices the muscle bundles of the left deltoid reacting to the tension in lifting the arm. The right quadriceps femoris is taut and rigid in tension to support the entire weight of the body. It is a pity that it was confined to a corner in the film.
Bertel Thorvaldsen - Jason with the Golden Fleece (1828) | Thorvaldsen Museum
Initially made in clay for the Copenhagen Academy (1802) to demonstrate its progress, then replicated in marble (1828) on commission from Thomas Hope, a wealthy English patron. The theme echoes an earlier drawing depicting Jason with the Golden Fleece by Asmus Jacob Carstens, but the aesthetic aspect of the artistic nude is inspired by the Apollo of the Belvedere (Vatican Museums) and the Doriforo of Polyclitus (MANN). In 1917 when Hope's heirs dispersed his collection in Deepdene, Surrey, the statue was bought at auction by the owners of the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. However, there are at least two replicas of the sculpture: one located at the Copenhagen City Hall and one in bronze located at the Piazza Thorvaldsen in Rome, near the Villa Borghese. The latter replica, in particular, was donated in 1925 by the city of Copenhagen as a sign of friendship towards Italy.
Menelaus and Patroclus (200–150 a.C.) | Loggia dei Lanzi and Palazzo Pitti
Menelaus and Patroclus, also known as Ajax holding the body of Achilles, this work is located in Florence, in the centre of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria. For a long time it was thought that the figure holding the corpse of Patroclus was Menelaus, but recently it has been suggested that it is Ajax Telamonius. The work is in any case based on Homer's Iliad, which describes the killing of Patroclus by Hector and the struggle between the Achaeans and Trojans for possession of his corpse, later recovered by the former.
Kleobis and Biton (585 a.C.) | Archaeological Museum of Delphi
Cleobis and Bitho of Polymonides of Argos are two Greek statues representing twins put to sleep forever by the goddess Hera. Herodotus refers to their story in the first book of the Histories, recounting how the two brothers, during a sacred rite celebrated by their mother Cidippe (a priestess consecrated to the goddess Hera of the city of Argos), pulled a chariot for 45 stadia (about 8.3 km) to the top of the hill where the sanctuary was located. The priestess was moved by this sacrifice and asked the goddess to reward the two boys. So, after the night of festivities, Hera put them into a pleasant and eternal sleep. The statues you see take up this theme and are attributed to Polyamedes of Argos, who made them in the second half of the 7th century BC in Parian marble.
Amphora Castellani, Hercules fighting with the Nemean (530-520 BC) | Capitoline Museums
Closing the roundup of works of art is a small room with ceramics, the heart of which is this amphora depicting Heracles fighting the Nemean lion. A similar, though not identical, decoration can be found on the Attic amphora from the Castellani collection, preserved in the Capitoline Museums, depicting Hercules fighting the Nemean lion in the presence of Athena and attributed to the Painter of the Conservators (530-520 BC).
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