Two struggling figures

This group is by an unknown artist sculpted in the 16th century in Florence.

The group appears to have been cast from a celebrated clay model by Michelangelo in the Casa Buonarotti, Florence, which has been variously regarded as a study a) for a Hercules and Cacus group commissioned from Michelangelo in 1528, b) for an allegorical group planned after 1530 for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, and c) for a projected Samson and the Philistine with which Michelangelo was occupied in 1528-9. The head of the standing figure in the Casa Buonarotti has been broken and was long thought to have been lost. The present cast was made after this breakage occurred, and is thus unlikely to date from the lifetime of Michelangelo.