In Leo von Klenze's project this room was to house the New Hermitage's library of foreign literature. It gets its present name from the numerous statues of Hercules that it contains. The display is devoted to the art of Ancient Greece in the late Classical period (4th century B.C.). We get an idea of the work of the famous sculptors of that era - Praxiteles, Scopas and Lysippus - from copies made in the Roman period. The display also includes portraits - of the famous Greek philosopher Socrates (from an original by Lysippus) and the statesman Demosthenes (from an original by Polyeuctus).
