I viewed a piece of art by the name of Ercole y Cacco or, Hercules and Cacus, sculpted by Gino Ruggeri. This was not the original, which stands 5.05 meters high in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy and was sculpted by Baccio Bandinelli from white marble. I viewed a sculpture of the statue, which stands a mere 19 inches high and is made from alabaster and has a polished finish. This sculpture is a full round work, even with its lack of height. Gino Ruggeri, used a subtractive method to carve the work out from a slab of alabaster, “a compact fine-textured usually white and translucent gypsum often carved into vases and ornaments” (Merriam-Webster). This sculpture was a gift to the Medici family to compare them to Hercules, and compare
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It looks as though their battle took place in the underworld, or on top of Mount Olympus, both very important places in Greek mythology. Both men are nude, and both have very defined bodies, they likely fought in the nude to show off their bodies to the Gods. At first glance, Hercules is the subject of the sculpture, he is standing in the center and stands larger than Cacus. Its understandable that Hercules is standing higher than Cacus because Hercules won this fight and Bandinelli wants that to be understood, especially in the metaphorical sense of when he used this sculpture to compare the Medici family to …show more content…
He showed this by making Hercules stand taller than Cacus, they are both on top of the rock formation together, but Hercules is standing up and Cacus is kneeling down. Hercules is also wielding a weapon and holding it closely to Cacus’ face, creating a sense of intimidation, which would also show that in this sculpture, Hercules is dominant over Cacus. Not only is Hercules standing taller, and holding a weapon, but his muscles seem to be a little bit more defined and larger than Cacus’ muscles are, this would be an example of character dominance. Hercules’ body is actually dominant over Cacus’ body. Bandinelli used this, as well, to show that in this battle, Hercules was victorious, he slayed his enemy in battle, just as the Medici family once again took power from the
It looks as though their battle took place in the underworld, or on top of Mount Olympus, both very important places in Greek mythology. Both men are nude, and both have very defined bodies, they likely fought in the nude to show off their bodies to the Gods. At first glance, Hercules is the subject of the sculpture, he is standing in the center and stands larger than Cacus. Its understandable that Hercules is standing higher than Cacus because Hercules won this fight and Bandinelli wants that to be understood, especially in the metaphorical sense of when he used this sculpture to compare the Medici family to …show more content…
He showed this by making Hercules stand taller than Cacus, they are both on top of the rock formation together, but Hercules is standing up and Cacus is kneeling down. Hercules is also wielding a weapon and holding it closely to Cacus’ face, creating a sense of intimidation, which would also show that in this sculpture, Hercules is dominant over Cacus. Not only is Hercules standing taller, and holding a weapon, but his muscles seem to be a little bit more defined and larger than Cacus’ muscles are, this would be an example of character dominance. Hercules’ body is actually dominant over Cacus’ body. Bandinelli used this, as well, to show that in this battle, Hercules was victorious, he slayed his enemy in battle, just as the Medici family once again took power from the