The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 14, 2026

A marble sculpture depicts a nude muscular man with close-cropped, wavy hair, and a fluffy beard looking to our left. His arms have broken off at the shoulders, his right leg at the hip, and the left at the knee. He sits on a rock draped with a rippling lionskin. An even spread of yellow-brown specks discolor the statue.

Herakles Epitrapezios (Hercules of the Table)

1–100 CE

Italy, Roman, Alexandrian

(?)
marble
Overall: 43.2 cm (17 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1955.50
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The sculptor carved Herakles and his rocky seat (covered with his lionskin) from separate marble pieces.

Description

The Roman poets Martial and Statius mention a bronze statuette made by the master Greek sculptor Lysippos (active c. 360s-310s BC). It depicted the Greek hero Herakles seated on a rock with a drinking cup and was created for Alexander the Great, who claimed Herakles as an ancestor and carried the sculpture with him on his military campaigns. Later, the work was said to have been acquired by Hannibal, Sulla, and the famed Roman art collector Novius Vindex. The statuette is called epitrapezios (on the table) either because it was designed to be displayed on a tabletop or because it shows Herakles seated, as at a table. Later sculptors made many more versions, including this one, to meet the demand of Roman collectors enamored with Greek art.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 33 archive.org
    Visscher, Fernand de. Heracles Epitrapezios. Paris: E.de Broccard, 1962. P. 61, pl. XIV, fig. 4.
    Bartman, Elizabeth. "Lysippos' Huge God in Small Shape." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 7 (1986): 298-311. p. 299-311, figs. 1-4. 25159951.
    Uhlenbrock, Jaimee Pugliese, Karl Galinsky, and Edith C. Blum Art Institute. Herakles: Passage of the Hero through 1000 Years of Classical Art. New Rochelle, N.Y., Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.: A.D. Caratzas; Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College, 1986. fig. 43
    Ouvry, Jean. “Une Réplique de L’héraclès Epitrapezios Retrouvée.” Antike Kunst 32, no. 2, 1989. p. 152–154 www.jstor.org
    Bartman, Elizabeth. Ancient Sculptural Copies in Miniature. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992. Pp. 159; cat. 3, Figs. 86-87.
    Ridgway, B.S. " Roman Bronze Statuary--Beyond Technology," in C.C. Mattusch, (ed.), The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Art Museums, 1996. P. 132, Fig. 9.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Sketchbook: Michelangelo: Mind of the Master. Cleveland Museum of Art; Cleveland, Ohio, 2019. Reproduced: P. 8
    Merrill, Larry, Kathleen Wakefield, and Archie Rand. An Accumulation of Silence. 2021. Reproduced: p. 8
  • {{cite web|title=Herakles Epitrapezios (Hercules of the Table)|url=false|author=|year=1–100 CE|access-date=14 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1955.50