Vatican experts uncovering gilded glory of Hercules statue struck by lightning -
For more than 150 years, the four-meter-tall figure of the half-human Roman god of strength has stood in that niche, barely garnering notice among other antiquities because of the dark coating it had acquired.
The discovery of the colossal bronze statue in 1864 during work on a banker’s villa near Rome’s Campo dei Fiori square made global headlines. The inscription FCS accompanying the statue on a slab of travertine marble indicates it was struck by lightning, according to Claudia Valeri, curator of the Vatican Museums department of Greek and Roman antiquities. As a result, it was buried in a marble shrine according to Roman rites that saw lightning as an expression of divine forces.
The burial protected the gilding, but also caused dirt to build up on the statue, which Baltera said is very delicate and painstaking to remove. “The only way is to work precisely with special magnifying glasses, removing all the small encrustations one by one,” she said.
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Vatican experts uncovering gilded glory of Hercules statue struck by lightningVatican Museum restorers are working to remove centuries of grime from the largest known bronze statue of the ancient world: the gilded Hercules Mastai Righetti. The 13-foot-tall (four-meter-tall) figure of the half-human Roman god has stood in the same niche for more than 150 years. It has barely garnered notice among other antiquities because of the dark coating it had acquired. Its discovery in 1864 made global headlines. The colossal Hercules was revered in its own day too because it had been struck by lightning. The Romans believed that being struck by lightning imbued the statue with divinity. The Vatican experts working to bring back its sheen say the statue is glorious. Museum-goers will be able to decide for themselves come December.
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