What Lysippus Did With The Skin Of The Nemean Lion

Before Hellenistic art, the portrayal of the hero or god/goddess followed a simple routine. The figure would be sculpted in heroic nudity, often stagnant in an unnatural pose, containing a “Phidean Expressionless” face and smile, and in the ideal format of a hero or god/goddess (in the best version of them). Once Hellenistic sculpture began to progress forward, the naturalism of the body’s form and expression to the level of hyper-realism of the sculpture’s face and body began to elicit an emotional response. These new factors of allegory and emotion, allow sculptors to no longer focus on the ideal, but on the composition and states of mind of the sculpture itself. This is exactly what Lysippus did with the ‘weary Herakles’. The allegorical
state of this composition is what helps to allude to the intense emotional expression. Lysippus made this statue in a way so that the viewer would be encouraged to view it from 360 degrees, in order to show the allegorical function of the statue. It depicts Herakles with the skin of the Nemean lion, the first of his twelve labors, draped over his well-known weapon of choice, the large wooden club, and as you walk behind his back he is holding the Apples of the Hesperides, the last of his twelve labors.
Lysippus used this allegory to create a sense of exhaustion in the composition of the sculpture, something that was not done before, especially not for a god like Herakles. This exhaustion, which can be seen in the image below, is unique to the Farnese Herakles because, as Pollitt states, “the scale and the massive musculature of the figure contrast ironically with its weariness and heighten its poignancy.” The detail of Herakles facial expression is what helps to show the emotional and physical exasperation that the hero has gone through during his twelve labors. With the use of Hellenistic baroque, Lysippus details a typical tendency of his towards “sensationalism” and “exaggeration” that is most conspicuous through the burrowed brow, glazed over eyes, and open mouth of the weary Herakles. These specific details are why people feel there must have been at least one prototype from Lysippus of this
scale. The characteristics described above from Lysippus are what make the statue so important to Hellenistic art.

“While Aristotle expanded men’s minds into material affairs and emotional expressions, so certain fourth-century painters and sculptors, led by Skopas or Lysippus, performed Procrustian experiments on Greek feelings for visual arts, The Weary Herakles became a semi-divine weather-vane of the naturalistic, mind-moving phase of Hellenistic and Greco-Roman art.” Lysippus was one of the most creative and influential artists during the Hellenistic period and by looking at the change from the classical and archaic portrayal of heroes and gods/goddess, to the way the weary Herakles is portrayed, it is very clear to see.
The Herakles Farnese is the pinnacle of Hellenistic art because it displays every element that came from this period. The contrapposto and torsion of the body, along with the way Herakles leans on his club shows a sculpture with more realistic movement of the body. Using proportions and symmetria, Lysippus was able to create a lifelike, colossal figure in the weary Herakles style. The defined musculature and deep, dramatic elaboration and carving of the body and the face, ties the sculpture into the features seen in the Hellenistic baroque. Finally, the development of the emotion seen in the statue and described above is one of the most dramatic leaps in artistic style in the Hellenistic period. As Pliny describes the artwork of Lysippus, “he used commonly to say that by them [that is, the earlier sculptors] men were represented as they really were, but by him
they were represented as they appeared.” Lysippus is doing just that in the weary Herakles, he is representing an exhausted Herakles, not the invincible demi-god that Herakles is known as. The Herakles Farnese was also important because of the meaning behind the statue. Herakles and his iconography in Hellenistic sculpture were the goal of many as to what a life of successful living would pertain to. The persistence to labor through life’s inner and outer challenges and find one’s inner hero was an inspiration for all peoples past and present. Whether a person disagrees or not, the reasons and descriptions stated above give support to show that the Herakles Farnese was indeed the best sculpture (or copy of one), to come out of the Hellenistic Period in every sculptural style of Hellenistic art.