Hercules Fountain
by VRIES, Adriaen de, Bronze
In the course of an international career, de Vries’ services were called upon by some of the greatest art patrons of the time: the Duc de Savoie, the Emperor Rudolph II, the King of Denmark, Duke Albert von Wallenstein, and the City of Augsburg. This fountain crowned by a a symbol of Virtue - a statue of Hercules conquering the Hydra - is one of three fountains put up to mark the sixteen-hundredth anniversary of the city. These fountains represent the three estates of the free imperial town: the masters (Augustus fountain), the merchants (Mercurius fountain) and the craftsmen (Hercules fountain).
The Hercules fountain, a monumental Italianate work, is De Vries’s most significant work. The original is in the Maximilian Museum in Augsburg.