Hercules killing the Hydra

In c. 1573, Bandini was commissioned to make a marble Hercules and the Hydra by Giovanni Niccolini (1544-1611), a diplomat for Francesco I de’ Medici, who had busts by Bandini of Cosimo I and Francesco I at his Florentine palazzo. The statue is installed on the square in front of the Villa Medicea di Camugliano. The villa dominates the surrounding area with its compact cubic structure and the four mighty corner turrets. It is reminiscent of a fortified structure, the square in front was created to collect an arms square on occasion.

Like the portrait busts, the Hercules was a homage to the Medici, who had taken the mythological founder of Florence as their symbol in the 15th century. For his statue Bandini referred to earlier Medicean treatments of Hercules, adopting the figure’s stance from Antonio del Pollaiuolo’s painting of Hercules and the Hydra and the frontal viewpoint and muscularity from Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus.