This sculpture representing the legend of Hercules and the Neamean Lion is made in the style of Giovanni Francesco Rustici in Florence in the first quarter of the 16th century.

Giovanni Francesco Rustici (1474-1554) is best known for his bronze group of the Preaching of the Baptist over the north door of the Baptistry in Florence (commissioned 1506; exhibited 1511). There is a tradition that during work on this group he was advised by Leonardo da Vinci, whose influence is reflected in a number of small terracotta groups of fighting horsemen and figures in the Museo Nazionale, Florence, and elsewhere. Rustici was also responsible for a series of terracotta roundels with mythological scenes in the Villa Salviati, Florence. About 1527-8 he left Florence for France, where he worked for the remainder of his life.

Hercules (Greek name is Heracles) is one of the most important heroes in Greek mythology. He was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, a Theban princess. He is regarded as the embodiment of physical strength and courage.
His two main attributes are the club and the lion’s skin, which he won at his first labour. He had to undertake 12 labours as a penance for slaying his own children in an act of madness.
To defeat the Nemean lion was Hercules' first labour set to him by Eurystheus and where he had to bring the skin of an unvulnerable lion, which terrorised the hills around the city of Nemea.