 Though traditionally identified as a Heracles seated on the skin of the Nemean lion, recent studies have identified the skin as that of a panther, occasioning other identifications (with possibilities including Hercules, Polyphemus and Marsyas).According to the Vatican Museum website, "the most favoured hypothesis identifies it with Ajax, the son of Telamon, in the act of contemplating his suicide".The statue is documented in the collection of Cardinal Prospero Colonna at his family's palazzo in Monte Cavallo, Rome from 1433, not because it elicited admiration but because an antiquarian epigrapher, Ciriaco d'Ancona (or someone in his immediate circle) made note of its inscription; a generation later it began its career as a catalyst of the classical revival.