This beautiful bronze Farnese Hercules relates to another cast of the model of the same dimensions (41.9cm), which is attributed to Giovanfrancesco Susini and is in the Princely Liechtenstein collects ions (inv. no. 556). The present bronze exhibits two elements which are characteristic of of Giovanfrancesco Susini's style: a distinctive pattern of hammer trails across the rocky base on which Hercules' club rests, and the stippled surface treatment of the lionskin. The cast is unusual for the highly worked textured surface of the flesh, which contrasts with other bronzes by Giovanfrancesco, but recalls Michelangelo's unfinished works. The model follows the famous Farnese sculpture and not the Florentine marble acquired by Cosimo I and brought to Florence in 1570 (Palazzo Pitti, Ammanati Courtyard, inv. no. OdA 1911 no. 608). Giovanfrancesco copied ancient statues in Rome in the 1620s, at which t.mes he may have developed the present model. The bronze is a particularly beautiful, finely chased and rare early 17th-century Florentine bronze reduction of one of the iconic Roman antiquities.

The Farnese Hercules was first recorded at the Palazzo Farnese by Aldrovandi in 1556. It was said to have been discovered in the Baths of Caracalla in 1546. The statue was restored by Guglielmo della Porta, who had made the legs on the recommendation of Michelangelo. According to della Porta, the head had been discovered six years before the body in a well in Trastevere. The original legs were later discovered but only reunited with the body in 1787. The gigantic figure became one of the most celebrated antiquities in Rome, where it was engraved by Hendrik Goltzius. Inscribed by a sculptor named Glycon, it is thought to date to the early 3rd-century AD and follow an earlier Greek original by Lysippus or his school. Along with the rest of the Farnese collects ion, the Farnese Hercules was inherited by the Bourbon Kings of Naples, and brought to Naples in 1787 following restoration by Carlo Albacini. It is today housed in the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples.

Filippo Baldinucci writes that following the completion of the equestrian monument to Cosimo I in the Piazza della Signoria, Antonio Susini accompanied Giambologna to Lombardy and Rome, where he executed copies of the 'most marvellous' statues of the city. According to Baldinucci, these included the Farnese Hercules, of which Susini made five casts, one for Cardinal Borghese, another for Jacopo Salviati, and three which were sent to France. He sold one of the French bronzes for 500 scudi, an enormous sum at the t.mes .

Zikos has pointed out factual errors in Baldinucci's account (private correspondence). The trip would have had to have taken place after 1593, when the Cosimo I rider was cast. However, Giambologna had in fact been in Lombardy in the summer and autumn of 1593, and is not known to have visited Rome after this date. Zikos has suggested that it is possible that Susini may have accompanied Giambologna to Rome at an earlier date, perhaps in the Spring of 1588. However, he did not produce casts of these copies after the antique until 1610 when he was commissioned to make a bronze Farnese Bull. Susini was in Rome in 1600 or early 1601 at which t.mes he may have made the copies after the opera nobilia referred to by Baldinucci. Zikos has argued that it is more plausible that Susini would have begun making such bronzetti following Pietro Tacca's ascendancy in Giambologna's workshop from 1598.

Significantly, Baldinucci's claim that Susini had made five casts of the Farnese Hercules, one of which he sold for 500 scudi, is incorrect. As was established by Herbert Keutner in 1990, the large sum of 500 scudi could only have been charged for a cast of the Farnese Bull, an ambitious multifigure composition. Susini made four casts of the Farnese Bull, signed and dated between 1613 and 1618. Zikos has pointed out that the Salviati referrred to by Baldinucci was not Giambologna's patron Jacopo Salviati (d. 1586), but the latter's grandson Duke Jacopo di Lorenzo Salviati (1607-1672), who acquired a bronze Farnese Bull signed by Antonio from Giovanfrancesco for 330 scudi in 1628, which is today in the Galleria Colonna, Rome. Likewise, the Borghese 'Farnese Hercules' can be identified as the Farnese Bull by Antonio Susini in Galleria Borghese, Rome; and the aforementioned 1610 cast was destined for France. The above evidence confirms that the argument that Antonio Susini made casts of the Farnese Hercules before 1600 is specious. However, Antonio Susini did subsequently develop a model after the Farnese Hercules: see the cast from the Robert H. Smith collects ion, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, which is published as Giovanfrancesco Susini, after a model by Antonio Susini, by Radcliffe and Penny, op. cit., no. 50 (figs. 2 and 3). However, the Smith bronze is of different dimensions to the present cast, being 31.3cm, and is of a different facture and finish.

The present bronze should be compared with the bronze Farnese Hercules of the same dimensions (41.9cm) in the Liechtenstein Princely collects ions (inv. no. SK 556). This bronze was attributed to Giovanfrancesco Susini by James D. Draper in 1985, along with all of the other Florentine bronzes in the 1658 Liechtenstein inventory (op. cit., pp. 75-76, no. 45). These include the Venus Chastising Cupid and the Venus Burning Cupid's Arrows (inv. nos. SK 542a, b), and were acquired or commissioned by Prince Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein in Italy between 1635 and 1636.

Both the present bronze and the Liechtenstein Farnese Hercules share the distinctive pattern of hammer trails on their rocky bases, a characteristic of Gianfrancesco's style. It can be seen in numerous bronzes within his accepted oeuvre, including the Liechtenstein Venus Chastising Cupid, signed and dated 1638, and in the cast of the same model, signed and dated 1639, in the Louvre (inv. no. OA 8276), amongst others. A further characteristic is the stippled surface treatment of the lion pelt, which is similar to the drapery straps from Giovanfrancesco's Venus and Adonis group, also from the Smith collects ion, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (op. cit., pp. 280-285, no. 51). Zikos has argued that these details make the present Farnese Hercules a Giovanfrancesco model (private correspondence).

The present Farnese Hercules diverges from other bronzes by Giovanfrancesco with the unusual highly worked textured surface of the flesh. This contrasts with the fine and extensive wire brushing seen in all other bronzes ascribed to Giovanfrancesco Susini. The matt punched surface treatment of the present bronze, along with the non finito state of the base, with rough file marks, perhaps represents an attempt to recall the textured surfaces of Michelangelo's unfinished marbles. Many of Giambologna's contemporaries sought to emulate Michelangelo in this respect; see for example Tribolo's terracotta Night and Day groups in the Bargello. Michelangelo had designed the architectural niche for the antique Farnese Hercules, and had recommended his pupil, Guglielmo della Porta, for the restoration of the legs, which were only substituted for the originals in 1787.

Zikos has proposed that a possible explanation for the 'waxiness' of the present present cast may lie in it reproducing a wax casting of the model that had not been retouched prior to casting. This could explain the softened hammer trails, although it does not provide a reason for the matt punched flesh surfaces.

X-Rays of the present bronze have shown that the bronze is cast in sections. It contains two double ended core pins, which was a technique particular to Florence. Holes from core support pins are filled with circular threaded plugs, and there are small traces of a red/ pink sandy clay based core material. Traces of the original golden reddish lacquer survives in areas; such red varnishes are characteristic of Florentine 16th and 17th century bronzes.

An X-Ray Fluorescence Report by Yannick Chastang, dated 4 January 2020, noted the inclusion of lead in the alloy with added tin and zinc. Referencing publications by Dylan Smith, Yannick Chastang compared the alloy to the Small Bather attributed to Giovanfrancesco Susini in the Palazzo Colonna, Rome, which likewise has a high level of lead and of antimony. Chastang cites Dylan Smith's conclusion that 'added lead appears to be specifically associated with Giovanni Francesco Susini'.

The present bronze is a particularly beautifully cast reduction of the ancient model. The hair and beard are rendered in exquisite detail, with waves and curls reminiscent of wood shavings. Hercules' hair has been arranged in classicising 'licks' made with the use of the tip of a stylus in wax. The veins in the outstretched left hand and the twisted right arm look as if they are pulsating with blood. Each of these characteristics sets the present bronze within the tradition of mannerist bronzes established by Giambologna.

Sotheby's would like to thank Dr Dimitrios Zikos for his kind assistance with the attribution and cataloguing of the present bronze.