Vatican restores Roman sculpture of Hercules

A gilded bronze sculpture, Hercules Mastai Righetti, now housed in the Vatican Museums, is undergoing conservation work, funded by the Patrons of the Vatican Museums, to remove centuries of dirt from its gilded surface.

The work depicts the young demigod Hercules leaning on his club, holding the apples of the Hesperides (afternoon nymphs) in his left hand. The identity of the original sculptor remains unknown, but the work is believed to date from the 2nd to 3rd century BC.

The statue was first discovered in 1864, under the courtyard of the Palazzo Pio Righetti in Campo de' Fiori, in the area of the former theater of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. It was found during the construction of a banker's villa and later donated to Pope Pius IX, who placed it in the papal collection.

Scholars believe that lightning struck the statue in ancient times and would have undergone a burial ritual based on Roman custom. The sculpture bears an inscription with the letters “FCS”, which means “fulgur conditum summanium”, a Latin phrase that means: “Here is buried a Summanian ray”. The ancient Romans believed that objects struck by lightning contained divinity because Summanus was the god of night thunder.

Vatican Museum restorer Alice Baltera told the Associated Press that the original gilding is "exceptionally well preserved," likely because it was buried after the lightning strike. But the current restoration has been called "very complex" because of the sculpture's structure and size. Measuring 13 feet high, it is one of the largest ancient Roman bronzes that has survived to the present day.

Restorers are now working to undo some of the earlier restoration work done by neoclassical sculptor Pietro Tenerani sometime in the 19th century, according to the AP. Such efforts include replacing the plaster added to the sculpture with fresh casts made from resin and removing a layer of wax that had been added to the surface.