Ares2.0001_Hampton

John Van Nost, "Mars", lead sculpture, south front of Hampton Court, installed 1694 restored and repositioned 1991, Historic Royal Palaces and The Royal Collection

Four sculptures originally stood together in the South Front's parapet: Hercules, Mars, Fame, and Victory. (The latter two are now lost. The nearby Heracles certainly of this set.)

See Davina Thackara and Fran Lloyd, Public Sculpture of Outer South and West London, Public Sculpture of Britain, 13 (University of Liverpool Press, 2011), 217-18. "Hampton Court Palace has architectural and garden sculpture by John Van Nost, Gabriel Caius Cibber, Grinling Gibbons and Edward Pierce."

William III, under whose direction Christopher Wren commissioned this piece, applied Heracles iconography during his regime. Hampton Court, which underwent considerable rennovations under WmIII, bears numerous references to Heracles, especially the East Front Pediment by Gabriel Cibber.