Head of the Farnese Hercules/Studies of the head and profile of the Farnese Hercules, seen from a lower viewpoint Head of the Farnese Hercules (recto)

In the 1540s the classical fragments of a statue of Hercules were excavated in Rome. Restored and reassembled in the Palazzo Farnese, the monumental sculpture soon attracted artists and came to represent an ideal of physical strength and power. Rubens studied the work in detail during his stay in Italy between 1601 and 1608. The position from which the mighty head is observed suggests that this drawing may have been made from one of the many plaster casts or marble copies which soon came to exist.