Finds

The statuette of Heracles

A small bronze statue (currently on show in the Cagliari Archaeological Museum was found in 1923 in Posada. It is 30 cm high, portraying an Italic style Heracles that has been dated by experts to a period between the mid-5th and the early 4th century B.C. (figs. 1-2).
Heracles is standing naked, with his left leg slightly in front. The great lion skin hangs from his left forearm (figs. 3-4).
This piece has been identified as coming from Campania and may be connected with the founding of a Roman-Etruscan settlement (Feronia?) near Posada in the first half of the fourth century. This statue may have been dedicated by Campania mercenaries paid by the Carthaginians to repress the Sardinian revolt in 387 B.C.

1
Fig. 1 - Left, the statuette of Hercules, Posada(From http://www.exibart.com/profilo/imgpost/rev/509/rev32509(1)-ori.jpg); right “Ercole e l'idra” (painting by Antonio Pollaiolo, fromhttps://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eracle#/media/File:Antonio_del_Pollaiolo_-_Ercole_e_l%27Idra_e_Ercole_e_Anteo_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg).
2
Fig. 2 - Detail of the statue (from http://www.exibart.com/profilo/imgpost/rev/509/rev32509(1)-ori.jpg).
3
Fig. 3 - The small statue of Hercules in the display case at the Cagliari Archaeological Museum (photo M.G. Arru).
4
Fig. 4 - The small statue of Hercules seen from the side (photo M.G. Arru)




Bibliografia

  • P. BERNARDINI, R. ZUCCA, Il Mediterraneo di Herakles: studi e ricerche. Atti del Convegno di Studi (26-28 marzo 2004, Sassari-Oristano), Roma 2005, p. 292.
  • M. BONELLO, A. MASTINO, Il Territorio di Siniscola in età romana, in E. ESPA, (a cura di), Siniscola: dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Ozieri 1994, pp. 157-218.
  • G. COLONNA, Bronzi votivi umbro-sabellici a figura umana, I, periodo arcaico, Firenze 1970, pp. 126-127, n. 374.
    Prima Italia 1981 = Prima Italia: l'arte italica del I millennio a.C. Catalogo della mostra (Museo Luigi Pigorini, Roma, 18 marzo - 30 aprile 1981), p. 170.
  • A. TARAMELLI, Nuovi acquisti del Museo di Cagliari, in Bollettino d'Arte, V, 1925, pp. 42 ss.
  • A. TARAMELLI, Sardi ed Etruschi, in Studi Etruschi, III, 1929, p. 49 (ora in Scavi e Scoperte, IV (1922-1939), Sassari 1985, p. 229).
  • M. TORELLI, Colonizzazioni etrusche e latine di epoca arcaica: un esempio, in Gli Etruschi e Roma, Atti dell'incontro di studio in onore di Massimo Pallottino (Roma, 11-13 dicembre 1979), Roma 1981, pp. 71-82.

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