-
1 of 253523 objects
Hercules and Acheloüs 1824-29
Bronze, granite | 260 x 210 x 95 cm (whole object) | RCIN 71768
-
A colossal bronze group of a nude, muscular figure of Hercules with legs wide apart, towering over Acheloüs in the form of a writhing scaly serpent which he holds by the neck with his outstretched left hand. With his right arm raised and muscles flexed he prepares to strike the creature with a short bar in his clenched fist. The hero wears a garland of oak leaves on his bearded head. The serpent is coiled between his legs and round a tree stump which is draped with a lion pelt, the lion's head lying on the groun to Hercules's right. At the back the serpent overlaps the plain straight-sided oval base. The group and its base are unmarked. It stands on a later Aberdeen granite plinth (1909) of oblong shape with expressed sides.
Hercules and Achelous were suitors to Deianira, daughter of the river god Oeneous. Ovid relates how, as they struggled, Achelous kept changing form from a bull to a snake. Bosio has chosen his metamorphosis as a serpent for this representation. The taste for this colossal action-hero statue was encouraged by commissions to Canova during the Napoleonic occupation of Italy.
Text adapted from Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King (2025).Provenance
Cast by Charles Crozetier (as was the original) using recycled cannons at the request of George IV and purchased by him from Rundell, Bridge and Rundell in 1829 for £1260. Its intended location is unknown and it originally stood hard against the north curtain wall of the Castle, a public area, although it may have been thought more suitable for the termination of a vista. Photographed on the North Terrace at Windsor Castle in 1860 (see photograph by Roger Fenton RCIN 2100056) though probably installed there by 1848. Moved to the centre of the East Terrace garden pond, 1909, for which the Aberdeen granite plinth was designed by Windsor's Clerk of Works, Arthur Young Nutt. Sent to Hampton Court Palace in 1957 with the intention of placing it in the Privy Garden, but funds were not forthcoming to install it. At the request of the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, it was moved to the centre of the pond adjacent to the Palm House in Kew in 1963.
A plaster of this subject was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1814. A marble was proposed by the comte de Forbin, Director of Museums for the restored monarchy, in 1821, but on the day of its delivery, 24 April 1822, Bosio asked that it be made in bronze since a fault had been found in the marble. The bronze was commissioned on 15 May for 45 000 francs. In August 1824 it was exhibited at the Paris Salon where it did not enjoy critical success. In August 1828 it was placed in front of the Tuileries palace. In 1865 it was moved to the far end of the north avenue, the allee des Orangers. In 1992 it was brought inside the Louvre in whose collection it remains (museum no LL 325).
-
Creator(s)
(retailer/maker)(founder (metals))Acquirer(s)
-
Medium and techniques
Bronze, granite
Measurements
260 x 210 x 95 cm (whole object)
Category
Object type(s)
Place of Production
Paris [Île-de-France]
