Hercules with the Apples of the Hesperides

Baccio Bandinelli had a long series of projects for monumental statues of muscular, nude Classical gods or heroes - often showing Hercules, but sometimes Neptune - which obsessed the sculptor. Only a few of these were actually executed. The principles that Bandinelli advocated in his statuettes are the same as he proclaimed in marble on a larger scale. Sometimes the feet of his figures are retracted, sometimes they are advanced, but always the body is set flat across one plane.