The exhibition illustrates the myth of the hero and the themes related to it, with a wide selection of over 70 works, including archaeological finds , jewels, applied works of art, paintings and sculptures, posters, films and much more, coming from by public institutions and private collections, capable of covering a chronological span that, from classical antiquity, reaches up to the twentieth century.

The initiative acquires a particular significance in the light of the ongoing restoration work on the “Fountain of Hercules”, the fulcrum of the seventeenth-century project of the Gardens of the Reggia, once dominated by the Statue of Colossus Hercules , and from which the visit ideally begins.

The route to Venaria opens with a section that traces the origin of the myth in pagan times, with a series of archaeological finds of great value and refinement, such as vases, amphorae, cups, made in the Greek region of Attica between 560 and 480 BC, from the Antikenmuseum in Basel, which depict various canonical exploits of the hero; among these stand out the monumental amphora of the Berlin Painter, one of the greatest expressions of Athenian ceramics and the hydria (vase) attributed to the Group of Pioneers.

The exhibition continues with the part that testifies to the diffusion of the representation of the Herculean legend in the Roman area, with some bronze or terracotta statuettes, as well as a colossal head of Hercules at rest, copy of the second half of the 1st century BC of a work of Lysippos dating back to 320/310 BC

Or again, the plaster cast of the bronze group of Hercules with the doe of Cerinea by Lysippos from the Skulpturhalle of Basel or two painted plasters from the Augusteum of Herculaneum, now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, which depict Heracles with the Boar and with the Nemean Lion . The section closes with two silver cups made by Gianmaria Buccellati, embossed and chiseled with the labors of Hercules, whose shapes are inspired by those of as many skyphoi found in Pompeii in the Menander's house and whose manufacturing steps can be seen on display , still identical to the ancient ones today.