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The white marble statue Hercules and Cacus is one of the statues lined up on the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.

Hercules and Cacus

This work by the Florentine artist Baccio Bandinelli (1525-1534) was commissioned as a counterpart for the other statues David, Fountain of Neptune and Judith and Holofernes. These had been commissioned by the republican counsel of Florence to commemorate the victory over the Medici.

The large group Hercules and Cacus (height : 5.05 m) was meant to be the retort of the Medici to the republican David, to celebrate their return to power. But for once the Medici were outclassed by Michelangelo's David. The Florentines thought it rather mediocre and it was ridiculed from the moment the sculpure was shown to the public. Bandinelli has tried to outdo the David in vain. Even the famous sculptor Benvenuto Cellini is said to have referred to the rigidly posed and ponderous group as "a sac full of melons". Afterwards, the insulted Bandinelli tried to sabotage Cellini's career.

The mythologican Hercules had killed the fire-breathing monster Cacus during his tenth labor. Hercules had become the symbol of strength and integrity, a symbol used by the Medici. This marble group shows the basic theme of the victor (the Medici) and the vanquished (the republicans).

The group Hercules and Cacus was a commission by the pope Clement VII (from the Medici family), who had been shown a wax model. The supplied block of Carrara marble wasn't big enough for his wax model. He had to make new wax models, one of which was chosen by the pope as the final draft. Bandinelli had already carved the sculpture as far as the abdomen of Hercules, when in 1527 the pope was taken prisoner in Rome. Meanwhile, in Florence, republican enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to expel Ippolito de' Medici from the city. Bandinelli, as a supporter of the Medici, had to leave the city as well. In 1530 Emperor Charles V retook possession of Florence after a long siege. Pope Clemens VII subsequently installed his illegitimate son Alessandro de Medici as duke of Tuscany. Bandinelli could then return to Florence and continue his work on the statue. Finally in 1534 the work on the statue was finished and the statue was transported from the Opera del Duomo to Piazza della Signoria and placed on its marble pedestal.

The statue was restored between February 1994 and April 1994. It was then discovered that the club in the hand of Hercules wasn't the original club, but was made of aluminum instead of the original bronze.