On account of their eccentric style and finer details, these highly polished figures of Hercules and Omphale are unmistakably the work of Giovanni Bonazza, one of the most renowned and distinctive champions of Venetian Baroque art.

Bonazza moved to Padua in 1697, where he established a highly successful workshop that included assistants as illustrious as Antonio Corradini and Francesco Bertos. Together with them and his sons, Bonazza created marble reliefs and figurative groups for palaces and villas throughout the Venetian Republic. Some of his works even travelled as far afield as Russia - between 1716 and 1719 several of his sculptures were purchased by an agent on behalf of Tsar Peter the Great to adorn the palaces and gardens of the Russian court.

At first impression these two characterful figures appear to be monumental in scale – rather like garden sculptures – however, their actual scale, more like tabletop bronzes, clearly indicates that they would have been commissioned as lavish small-scale statuettes for a wealthy patron.