Seated Hercules - Temple of Aphaia (East Pediment)

myminifactory

The pedimental figures from the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina (c.500/490-490/480 BC) are among the most famous and beautiful of all Greek marble sculptures. Excavated in 1811, the fragments of the marbles were relocated to The Munich Glyptothek in 1827. The Aegina sculptures depict the two Trojan Wars: Greeks and Trojans are entangled in violent conflict. The tutelary goddess of the Greeks, Athena, stands majestically in the centre of both pediments. In 1815, the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen began work on completing ("restoring") the missing parts of the group of fifteen. As early as the late 19th century however, these restorations were the subect of a controversial debate and they were finally removed in 1963-1965. The SMK holds the full collection of 'completed' Thorvaldsen models, and the original marbles are housed in the Munich Glyptothek.