Group of statues - Hercules and Omphale

With regard to its composition, Simon Troger’s sculptural group ‘Hercules and Omphale’ exhibits parallels with his statue-goup ‘Chronos Lachesis’ (Inv.nr. 4864). Only the protagonists and the attributes used by them are different.

In order to free him from the stain of murder, Hermes took the hero to Asia, where he sold him as a slave. Hercules was purchased by Omphale, queen of Lydia, whom he served for the year (according to some versions of the myth, it was three years). The demigod had to perform housework and other women’s work while dressed in women’s clothing. References to this are the distaff that the hero holds and the spindles on the floor. On the other hand, in order to emphasise her martial nature, Omphale is shown with a bow, arrows, and quiver.

The solid Guinea ivory has been worked by the master with extraordinary delicacy and attention to detail. He has devoted especial care to the depiction of the bulging of the veins on Hercules’s body, to the detailed carving of his wavy locks falling in curls, and to the meticulous fashioning of the lion’s skin that covers Omphale’s head and figure, as well as to her fingers and toes. With good taste, Simon Troger married the ivory with dark-stained woodcarvings, made from African sugar pine first and foremost. On the Budapest works, a combination of jacaranda and walnut can be seen. Special mention should be made of the fine way in which the ivory carvings and the woodcarvings are put together, and also of their distinctive combined effect.