Farnese Hercules, marble. See also sculpture no. 8. Replica of an antique sculpture originally in Cardinal Alessandro Farneses collection.

The lion skin belongs to the Nemean lion, an evil monster in Greek mythology who lived in a cave near Nemea. The lion could not be killed with the weapon of mortals because its golden fur was impervious to attack. Its claws were sharper than the swords of mortals and could destroy all strong armour. Hercules eventually killed it as the first of his twelve great deeds.

Cardinal Alessandro Farnese was the grandson of Pope Paul III. Farnese was well placed to form one of the largest collections of classical sculpture that had emerged since antiquity. The original stood for generations in a separate room in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, where the sculpture was surrounded by frescoes of Heracles’ twelve mythical feats created by the artist Annibale Carracci made in the 1590s. Farnese Hercules was moved to Naples in 1787 along with most of the

Farneses Collection and is part of the collection of the Archaeological Museum there.