Hercules Strangling the Nemean Lion 1500 - 1515

This tiny bronze, Hercules Strangling the Nemean Lion, was made by Galeazzo Mondella, called Moderno, in the late 15th or early 16th century. It shows the hero in his iconic struggle, the sinews of both man and beast bulging with exertion. It’s a tour-de-force of the bronze-caster’s art. Just consider how the artist used a wax model to create a mold, into which the molten metal was poured. Once cooled, the bronze would have been chased, that is, worked over with chisels to sharpen the detail. You might ask, why go to all this trouble for an object that fits in the palm of your hand? Well, bronze was the high-tech material of the Renaissance. Affordable only to the wealthy, it was perfectly suited to convey the classical virtues of strength and reason to a humanist audience. This is not just a sculpture; it’s a portable statement of cultural aspiration. Looking closely, we realize the value is in the making.