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When Lespingola returned from Italy to France he became occupied with royal garden statuary. It is possible that he launched his series of small bronzes in the years 1693-99, when commissions stalled at the Bâtiments du Roi, the department of the king's household responsible for royal gardens. Years of study in Italy influenced his style and informed his bronze technique. He adapted the technique that Florentine sculptors, such as Giovanni Battista Foggini and Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, used to achieve their effects in grouping multiple figures: casting elements separately and assembling them with bolts beneath the base or soldered joins.
The subject of the present group is the Fourth Labour of Hercules: to bring the fearsome Erymantean Boar back to Eurystheus alive. Lespingola executed six other episodes from the stories of the twelve labours, the artist's intention was likely to create a set of twelve episodes.
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