Sculptor of Northern Italy, 17th century, Hercules and the Nemean Lion, alabaster Sculptor of Northern Italy, 17th century HERCULES AND THE NEMEAN LION A group in alabaster depicting the mythological episode of the struggle between Hercules and the Nemean Lion; the hero, naked with his quiver around his waist and a fluttering cloak behind his back, represented at the moment when he opens the Lion's jaws in what will be the first of his twelve 'labours'. As a first effort, in fact, Eurystheus ordered Heracles to kill the infamous lion, whose skin was invulnerable to any weapon, who lived in a cave near the city of Nemea, in Argolis; after a terrible struggle, the hero finally succeeded in annihilating the beast by strangling it, lifted its carcass and carried it straight to Mycenae. Using the lion's own claws, Hercules managed to skin it and from then on used its skin as invincible armour; 34.5x21x13 cm