Bracelet, Germano Alfonsi

The six plaques depicting Hercules' labours, length approximately 200mm, signed Germano.

Hercules was one of the most famous heroes of antiquity. He sought guidance from the Delphic Oracle, which bade him journey to Tiryns and serve King Eurystheus for twelve years. Eurystheus set him the Twelve Labors, some of which the sculptor Germano Alfonsi has represented here:  to kill the Nemean Lion (3), which than later became the constellation Leo; to clean the Augean stables (5), which Heracles did by diverting the river Alpheus from its course so that it flowed through the stables; to capture the Cretan bull (2), which Heracles took back to Mycenae; to slay the horses of Diomedes (1), which ate human flesh, Heracles slew their master and threw his body to the horses; to obtain the girdle of the Amazon queen, Hyppolyte (6).