#heroic physique

[charlesreeza]

Hercules Fighting Achelous Transformed into a Snake, bronze, 1824, by Francois-Joseph Bosio

Louvre Museum, Paris

[charlesreeza]

Hercules, marble, 2nd century 

Louvre Museum

[charlesreeza]

Hercules at Rest - Museo Civico al Castello Ursino - Catania, Sicily

Photo by Charles Reeza

[charlesreeza]

Fragment of a Sarcophagus, marble, 2nd century, Roman, Imperial period, at the St. Louis Art Museum.  The fragment shows Herakles, son of Zeus, performing four of the twelve labors he completed to atone for killing his wife and children in a murderous rage.  Despite the heavy damage to this piece, Herakles’ manhood is intact in all four scenes.  Huzzah, Herakles!

[charlesreeza]

Teucer, bronze, conceived 1881, cast 1919, Hamo Thornycroft

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

The archer Teucer was one of the heroes of Homer's story of the Trojan War. This is a small copy of the original sculpture which is over seven feet tall. The piece was conceived as a monumental ideal nude in emulation of Frederic Leighton’s Athlete Wrestling with a Python. The art critic Edmund Gosse called Thornycroft’s sculpture “courageously realistic.”

I photographed it from all angles, as always, for scientific purposes.