Apollo Belvedere

Between 350 and 325 BC.

White marble

Vatican City, Vatican Museums

The Apollo Belvedere, also called the Pythian Apollo, is a celebrated marble sculpture from Classical Antiquity. It was rediscovered in the late 15th century, during the Renaissance. From the mid-18th Century, it was considered the greatest ancient sculpture by ardent neoclassicists and for centuries epitomized ideals of aesthetic perfection for Europeans and westernized parts of the world. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (960x1280, 623 KB) Description Description: Belvedere Apollo. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC - 350s BC - 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 355 BC 354 BC 353 BC 352 BC 351 BC - 350 BC - 349 BC 348 BC 347... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC - 320s BC - 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 330 BC 329 BC 328 BC 327 BC 326 BC - 325 BC - 324 BC 323 BC 322... Venus de Milo, front. ... Entrance to the museum Staircase of the Vatican Museum The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Venus de Milo, front. ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional object, which for the purposes of this article is man-made and selected for special recognition as art. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Perfection is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness. ...

Description

The sculpture depicts the Greek god Apollo, who has just overtaken the serpent Python, a monster recently ravaging the coast of Delphos. The arrow has just left his bow and the effort impressed on his musculature still lingers. His hair, lightly curled, flows in ringlets down his neck and rises gracefully to the summit of his head, which is encircled with the strophium, a band symbolic of gods and kings. His quiver is suspended across his left shoulder. His robe (chlamys) is clasped at his right shoulder and is turned up only on his left arm and thrown back. Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum) In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or , Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a... In Greek mythology Python was the earth-dragon of Delphi, always represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent. ... Delphos may refer to: Delphos, Ohio Delphos, Kansas Delphos, Iowa This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A Chlamys (χλαμΰς) is an Ancient Greek piece of clothing, namely a cloak. ...

The lower part of the right arm and the left hand were missing when discovered and were restored by Giovanne Angelo de Mentorsoli, a sculptor and pupil of Michaelangelo. Michelangelo (full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564) was a Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter, and poet. ...

History

Antiquity

The marble is either a Hellenistic or a Roman copy of a lost bronze original made between 350—325 BC by the Greek sculptor Leochares. The Hellenistic period of Greek history was the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC - 350s BC - 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 355 BC 354 BC 353 BC 352 BC 351 BC - 350 BC - 349 BC 348 BC 347... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC - 320s BC - 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 330 BC 329 BC 328 BC 327 BC 326 BC - 325 BC - 324 BC 323 BC 322... Leochares was an Greek sculptor, who lived in the 4th Century B.C. He is theorised as the creator of Apollo Belvedere, which is currently housed in Vatican City. ...

The Renaissance

Before its installation in the Cortile del Belvedere, the Apollo, which seems to have been discovered in 1489,^[1] apparently received very little notice from artists^[2] and though it has always been known to have belonged to Giuliano Della Rovere before he became pope, as Julius II, its placement has been confused until as recently as 1986:^[3] Cardinal Della Rovere, who held the titulus of San Pietro in Vincoli, stayed away from Rome for the decade during Alexander VI's papacy, 1494-1503; in the interim, the Apollo stood in his garden at SS. Apostoli, Deborah Brown has shown, and not at his titular church, as had been assumed. A carrousel in the Cortile del Belvedere: the anonymous mid 16th century engraver has exaggerated the vertical dimensions, but Bramantes monumental stairs are visible. ... Pope Julius II (December 5, 1443 – February 21, 1513), born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513. ... Titulus of Pyramus, the cubicularius Lucius Vitellius the elder Titulus (Latin title) describes the conventional inscriptions on stone that listed the honours of an individual [1] or that identified boundaries in the Roman Empire, or that identified the subsections in, for example, Justinians Pandects. ... The chains of St. ... Pope Alexander VI (1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), born Roderic Borja (Italian: Borgia), (reigned from 1492 to 1503), is the most controversial of the secular popes of the Renaissance and one whose surname became a byword for the debased standards of the papacy of that era. ...

Once it was installed in the Cortile, however, it immediately became renowned and a demand for copies of it arose. The Mantuan sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, called "L'Antico", made a careful wax model of it, which he cast in bronze, finely finished and partly gilded, to figure in the Gonzaga collection, and in further copies in a handful of others. Albrecht Dürer reversed the Apollo's pose for his Adam in a 1504 engraving of Adam and Eve, suggesting that he saw it in Rome. When L'Antico and Dürer saw it, the Apollo was probably still in the personal collection of Giuliano della Rovere, who, once he was pope as Julius II, transferred the prize in 1511 to the small sculpture court of the Belvedere, the palazzetto or summerhouse that was linked to the Vatican Palace by Bramante's large Cortile del Belvedere. It became the Apollo of the Cortile del Belvedere and the name has remained with it, though the sculpture has long been indoors, in the Museo Pio-Clementino at the Vatican Museums, Rome. Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (Bozzolo?, near Mantua ca. ... The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. ... Albrecht Dürer (pronounced /al. ... Pope Julius II Julius II, né Giuliano della Rovere (December 5, 1443 - February 21, 1513), was pope from 1503 to 1513. ... Pope Julius II (December 5, 1443 – February 21, 1513), born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513. ... Belvedere (occasionally Belvidere) is an architectural term adopted from the Italian (literally fair view), which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. ... Anthem Inno e Marcia Pontificale(Italian) Hymn and Pontifical March Capital (and largest city) Vatican City1 Official languages Latin2, Italian, French and (German). ... A carrousel in the Cortile del Belvedere: the anonymous mid 16th century engraver has exaggerated the vertical dimensions, but Bramantes monumental stairs are visible. ... Entrance to the museum The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Entrance to the museum Staircase of the Vatican Museum The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. ...

In the 1530s it was engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi, whose printed image transmitted the famous pose throughout Europe. Marcantonio Raimondi (c. ...

The 19th century

The neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova adopted the fluency of the Apollo Belvedere for his marble Perseus (Vatican Museums) in 1801. Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Self-portrait by Canova, 1792. ... Perseus with the head of Medusa, by Antonio Canova, completed 1801 (Vatican Museums) Perseus, Perseos, or Perseas (Greek: Περσεύς, Περσέως, Περσέας), the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits helped establish the hegemony of Zeus and the Twelve...

Works inspired or influenced by the Apollo Belvedere

• Canova, Antonio, Perseus (1801, Vatican Museums)
• Crawford, Thomas, Orpheus and Cerberus (1838-43; Boston Athenaeum, later Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Self-portrait by Canova, 1792. ... Perseus with the head of Medusa, by Antonio Canova, completed 1801 (Vatican Museums) Perseus, Perseos, or Perseas (Greek: Περσεύς, Περσέως, Περσέας), the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits helped establish the hegemony of Zeus and the Twelve... Entrance to the museum Staircase of the Vatican Museum The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Washington Monument, Richmond, Virginia Thomas Gibson Crawford (March 22, 1813/14 – October 10, 1857) was a sculptor who was born in New York City, the son of Aaron & Mary (Gibson) Crawford. ... Boston Athenæum is an historical independent library and museum in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. ... Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Doù venons-nous? Que faisons-nous? Où allons-nous?) (1897). ...

Notes

External links

• Image of Apollo Belvedere with a fig leaf
• The sculpture shown with and without a fig leaf
• 16th century engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi

References

• Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, 1981. Taste and the Antique (Yale University Press) Cat. no. 8. Critical history of the Apollo Belvedere.