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Hercules on Horseback

Bronze sculpture of a man on horseback.
Bronze sculpture of a man on horseback seen from behind. The man's face is turned away, and the horse is seen in profile.

Bertoldo di Giovanni (ca. 1440–1491)
Hercules on Horseback, ca. 1470–75
Bronze
10 3/4 in. (27.2 cm)
Gallerie Estensi, Modena (2265)
Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali / Archivio fotografico delle Gallerie Estensi / photo Carlo Vannini

Hercules is here identified by a club (his signature weapon), lion-skin cloak, and muscular appearance. He is large in proportion to his horse, emphasizing his physical strength. One of Hercules's best-known labors was his defeat of the Nemean lion. Here he slips his fingers into the mouth of the leonine trophy that he wears, a reference to illustrations of this episode that show Hercules besting his feline foe by prying apart the beast's jaws. Equestrian depictions of Hercules were unique to the Este family — rulers of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio — and this statuette was likely produced for Duke Ercole I d'Este, who promoted his association with his mythological namesake. The imagery of Hercules on Horseback is connected to Ercole's wedding to the princess of Naples or to a springtime festival during which Ercole rode throughout Ferrara in costume, bringing flowering branches to the city's most beautiful women.