Herakles Epitrapezios (Hercules of the Table) (1–100 CE): Art, History and Details

Herakles Epitrapezios (Hercules of the Table) (1–100 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Roman poets Martial and Statius mention a bronze statuette made by the master Greek sculptor Lysippos (active c. 360s–310s BCE). It depicted the Greek hero Herakles seated on a rock with a drinking cup and was created for Alexander the Great, who claimed Herakles as an ancestor and carried the sculpture with him on his military campaigns. Later, the work was said to have been acquired by Hannibal, Sulla, and the famed Roman art collector Novius Vindex. The statuette is called epitrapezios (on the table) either because it was designed to be displayed on a tabletop or because it shows Herakles seated, as at a table. Later sculptors made many more versions, including this one, to meet the demand of Roman collectors enamored with Greek art.

Object facts

• Title: Herakles Epitrapezios (Hercules of the Table)
• Date: 1–100 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman, Alexandrian(?)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1955.50.a

A detail from the museum

The sculptor carved Herakles and his rocky seat (covered with his lionskin) from separate marble pieces.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ridgway, B.S. " Roman Bronze Statuary--Beyond Technology," in C.C. Mattusch, (ed.), The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Art Museums, 1996.
• Visscher, Fernand de. Heracles Epitrapezios. Paris: E.de Broccard, 1962.
• Bartman, Elizabeth. "Lysippos' Huge God in Small Shape." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 7 (1986): 298-311.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.