The depiction of the two opponents with their strong physiques and beards suggests Heracles and the giant Antaios rather than 'ordinary' heavy athletes in a sporting contest of strength. This pair of figures is probably connected with the myth of the battle between Heracles and Antaios, which was already widespread in Greek art as a symbol of victory over barbarism. Numerous representations of this battle can therefore be found again and again in the various genres, whereby - as in this case - the large-scale sculpture has been the model for the small-scale version.
Even though Heinrich Willers, in his handwritten and unpublished catalogue of the antique bronzes in the Kestner Collection (1901), attested to the object's antique authenticity on the basis of its stylistic and technical details, its origin in the Roman imperial period has been doubted time and again. The group was thought to be a replica of an antique Renaissance original or even a forgery. Norbert Franken has revised this assumption for the last time (2016). Thus, it is an original oriented towards Late Classical models, which shows a close relationship with Roman bust weights of the first half of the 2nd century AD from Italy and the north-western provinces. (AVS)
Former August Kestner Collection, Rome
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