The Collecting History of Stolen Art: Hercules and his son Telephus, Pergamon

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

In her book, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates: Rome's Deadliest Enemy, Adrienne Mayor has a photo of Hercules and his son Telephus, Pergamon, now in the Chiaramonti Museum at the Vatican. According to Mayor, Pompey the Great, the Roman general, recognized the likeness of the baby Telephus to Mithradates and took it to Rome after defeating Mithradates in 63 BC.  According to a footnote in Ms. Mayor's book: "Pompey installed this Hercules statue in his Theater on the Field of Mars in Rome.  The statue was discovered in 1507 in Campo dei Fiori, near the ruins of Pompey's Theater."

This 88-85 BC marble sculpture shows Hercules in a lion-skin cape holding his infant son Telephus. "Recent analysis of portraiture in contemporary coins and sculpture suggests that the model for the little boy was none other than Mithradates!" Mayor writes.

This statue is now at the 19th century Chiaramonti Museum, one of the buildings known as the Vatican Museum set up more than 500 years ago.  The image is not available publicly but you can find it in Ms. Mayor's excellent book! I have found both the recorded book and the paperback to be very useful.