Portrait of a Female Mule

The photo shows the Mule beneath the Roman statue Weary Hercules. Hercules is shown here resting on his club, while in his right hand, which is behind his back, he his holding the apples from the garden of the Hesperides, which were one of his famous “twelve labours”. The lion’s skin and the vigorously shaped body, together with the club are the attributes that identify the mythical hero with no doubt. The Florentine example is a mid-2nd-century AD copy of the statue known as the “Farnese Hercules” by sculptor Lysippos in the latter part of the 4th century BC and called this because it is the copy of the more famous statue - now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples - once owned by the noble Farnese family.