Its proximity to the Tegean sculptures has long been recognized (cf. PLATE 52 )[28]. Compared with the Sicyon type, the features are more compact, the expression more intense, the face is broadening; however, the emphasis on the plane of the cheeks and jawbone has yet to succeed in transforming the facial outline from a closed oval to the more angular and open form of the most advanced of the Tegean heads. The eyes are more deep-set than those of the Genzano head, and the upper lids are now sagging quite far over their outer corners; the lower lid is deeper. The heavy nose and undulant, firm-set mouth are distinctive, and there is a tenseness in the upper lip and quadrates muscle that does not seem to have been present in the earlier work. The hair has lost much of its stylization, especially at the front, although the parting remains above the right eye and the treatment of the individual strands is the same.
In the Herakles, we see the application of the Skopaic double “contrapposto to the standing male nude for the first time”[29]. That the very nature of the subject makes this a more difficult task than in the case of the Maenad is obvious. The twist is still quite small and the number of really satisfactory viewpoints still limited to two, though more closely integrated through the action of the body than in the Sicyon Herakles. The spatial extension of the work outside the block is likewise fairly restricted, in fact to the out-thrust forearm only (compare the earlier Herakles and the Maenad, PLATES 31 and 32 ), since the left leg, though emphasizing the opening of this side out into space, does not actually extend beyond the natural limits of the block.
There is nothing quite like the Herakles in Hellenistic sculpture. As a work of art, there is more depth to the hero’s personality than may at first be imagined. At first sight the figure seems to impose itself upon the observer in a truly heroic manner, yet below the facing of the young hero’s triumphant stature and perfect physique there is more than a hint of a tragedy that underlies the labors and the terrible and crushing burdens that are to come. Even so, the emotion is still unfocused and the figure remains multifaceted.
