# Hercules [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [POLLAIUOLO brothers]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Bronze, height 44 cm ## Commentary In the Hercules bronzes, Pollaiuolo stressed the group's pivoting movement by providing a triangular base. The sides of the base dictate the best three viewing angles, but the observer is also encouraged to turn the bronze around and inspect the interlocked figures from other angles. The two single-figure Hercules bronzes \(Bode Museum, Berlin; Frick Collection, New York\) similarly demand to be rotated. The expressive effect of their surface texture, so different from the smooth polish of Verrocchio's bronzes, echoes the contained energy inherent in the pose and crisply detailed features of each figure. Small precious table bronzes such as this figure were regarded as collectors' items from the last decades of the fifteenth century, as a representation of the owner's fascination with, and knowledge of, antiquity. ## Related artworks - [Altarpiece of the Sts Vincent, James, and Eustace]() - [Angel \(detail\)]() - [Apollo and Daphne]() - [Battle of Ten Nudes]() - [Battle of Ten Nudes]() - [Battle of Ten Nudes]() - [Bust of a Young Warrior]() - [David Victorious]() - [Hercules and Antaeus]() - [Hercules and Antaeus]() - [Hercules and Antaeus]() - [Hercules and Antaeus]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()