Monument to Ercole and Anteo, copper monument in Parma, Italy

The Monument to Ercole and Anteo is a copper group showing the hero wrestling the giant Antaeus, whose mouth once spouted water. Made by Teodoro Vanderstruck between 1684 and 1687, it now stands in the courtyard of Palazzo Cusani, home of the Casa della Musica. A copy from the 1990s sits on the Toschi fountain on the town hall's east front.

Duke Ranuccio II Farnese commissioned the copper group for the fountain in front of the Palazzo del Giardino, probably on a design by Francesco Maria Reti; the Flemish artist Teodoro Vanderstruck made it between 1684 and 1687, with water flowing from Antaeus's mouth. Duke Filippo di Borbone had the fountain demolished in the mid-18th century, and in 1784 Ferdinando moved the group under the loggia of the Zecca courtyard. After moves to the Palazzo del Giardino courtyard, the Parco Ducale fishpond islet and a niche of the Palazzo del Comune, it reached Palazzo Cusani in 2003.

In Parma dialect the group is called 'I du brasè', the two embraced, because Hercules grips Antaeus in a wrestling hold. The subject comes from the myth of the giant who drew strength from contact with the earth. The work was made as part of a fountain, with water flowing from Antaeus's mouth.

The original copper group stands in the courtyard of Palazzo Cusani, now the Casa della Musica; the copy on the Toschi fountain is on the eastern front of the town hall. The original was moved to the courtyard in 2003, so look for it inside the building rather than on the square outside.

On 1 January 1981 vandals sawed off and took Antaeus's right arm, which was never recovered. The Parma sculptor Jucci Ugolotti rebuilt the missing limb during a restoration that ran from 1985 to 1994, when the group was placed on the monumental staircase of the town hall.