Hercules: Modern and barbaric

In the early 20th century, modernity manifested itself either as a desire for rupture, or as a return to the past: a return to the primordial energy of myths and to the pared down shapes of an archaism fed by various influences — Greek and Roman antiquity, African or Oceanian civilisations. At the Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1910, Hercules the Archer transfixed critics and visitors alike. Museums fought over it. At the age of 50, Bourdelle attained fame.

But at the start of it all was an athletic model who came to pose for him. Drawing on the plastic inspiration of a faraway Antiquity, Bourdelle gave life to the virility of a “modern and barbaric” hero. Hercules’ gesture is enough: no arrow, no quiver. The feet have turned into lion paws, the hands into claws. The raw musculature is caught in a masterful combination of tension and extension. “Momentum is the supreme law,” as Antoine Bourdelle said himself.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, leader of the Italian Futurist movement, gave a vibrant tribute to the artwork’s dynamism. A skilful balance between positive and negative spaces, between straight and curved lines, the prowess of this construction inspired Cubist sculptors of the following generation, such as Henri Laurens.