When Hercules was rediscovered, the hero’s lower legs were missing (and in some retellings, his head was found far away in a well). Guglielmo della Porta, a student of Michelangelo, made a new pair of calves allowing him to be displayed standing tall. The original legs were later discovered and donated to the King of Naples by Prince Borghese, whose art collection in the Villa Borghese is still an art highlight of Rome.
However, the newer, slender Renaissance calves were long preferred, and only towards the late 18th century were the original legs reintegrated. Goethe would later write in his Italienische Reise travel journal, “It is now impossible to understand how those of Della Porta were considered good for so long a time”. (The extra pair of legs are displayed nearby in the same gallery of the Naples National Archaeological Museum.)