Hercules and Lichas, marble

This monumental sculpture by Antonio Canova (1757–1822) demonstrates the misused strength of Hercules being turned into something visually frightening. It depicts the murder of the servant Lichas by Hercules. The two-figure group, which is over three metres high, has the hapless servant, upside down, grasped both by the hair and the foot, howling with fear and trying to save himself by holding on to the lion's mane. The limbs of Hercules are stretched out to extreme limits, making this display of physical exertion, of brutal force and of uncontrolled passion, raging, excessive and aberrant.

Hercules and Lichas, marble, 335 cm, 1795–1815, artist: Antonio Canova; photographer: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, source: Wikimedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hercule_et_Lichas_dA._Canova_(GNAM,_Rome)_(5974377551).jpg,  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en.