Pietro Galli (1804 - 1877) studied at the Academia San Luca in Rome. He was employed by Pope Pius IX to restore several Antique statues and produced statues for the Basilica Vaticana of 'Santa Angela Merici' and 'Santa Francesca Romana'. His work can also be found in the church of San Giovanni in Laterano and the Basilica San Paulo fuori le Mura. The present figure by Galli is after the Antique original formerley in the Farnese collection, when it was displayed in the Courtyard of the Palazzo Farnese, Rome, and now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples. It is thought to be an enlarged version made by Glycon in the early 3rd century A.D., for the Baths at Caracalla, of a statue of the same hero produced by Lysippus or his school. The original was much admired for its exagerated musculature. Hogarth wrote of it 'All parts were finely fitted for the purpose of the utmost strength that the texture of the Human form will endure'. Hercules is seen holding the Golden Apples of Hesperides in his right hand, standing beside a lion pelt, an illusion to his slaying of the Nemean Lion, with his club at his side. The completion of his Twelve Labours may explain the air of exhaustion manifested in his limbs and posture.