TheBelvedere Torso is a 1.59-metre-tall (5.2 ft) fragmentarymarblestatue of a male nude, known to be in Rome from the 1430s, and signed prominently on the front of the base by "Apollonios, son of Nestor, Athenian", who is unmentioned in ancient literature. It is now in theMuseo Pio-Clementino (Inv. 1192) of theVatican Museums.[1]
Once believed to be a 1st-century BC original,[2] the statue is now thought to be a copy from the 1st century BC or AD of an older statue, probably to be dated to the early 2nd century BC.
The muscular male figure is portrayed seated on an animal hide, and its precise identification remains open to debate. Though traditionally identified as aHeracles seated on the skin of theNemean lion, recent studies[citation needed] have identified the skin as that of a panther, occasioning other identifications (with possibilities includingPolyphemus andMarsyas).[3] According to the Vatican Museum website, "the most favoured hypothesis identifies it withAjax, the son ofTelamon, in the act of contemplating his suicide".[4]
The statue is documented in the collection ofCardinal Prospero Colonna athis family's palazzo inMonte Cavallo, Rome from 1433,[5] not because it elicited admiration, but because theantiquarianepigrapherCiriaco d'Ancona (or someone in his immediate circle) made note of its inscription.[6] Around 1500 it was in the possession of the sculptorAndrea Bregno.[citation needed] It was still in the Palazzo Colonna during thesack of Rome in 1527, when it suffered some mutilation.[7] Between 1530 and 1536, the sculpture was acquired by the pope.[5] How it entered the Vatican collections is uncertain, but by the mid-16th century it was installed in theCortile del Belvedere, where it joined theApollo Belvedere and other famous Roman sculptures. "TheLaocoön took two months from unearthing toBelvedere canonization," Leonard Barkan observed, "theTorso took a hundred years."[8]
The contorted pose and musculature of thetorso were highly influential onRenaissance,Mannerist, andBaroque artists, includingMichelangelo andRaphael, and it served as a catalyst of theclassical revival. Michelangelo's admiration of the Torso was widely known in his lifetime,[9] to the extent that the Torso gained thesobriquet, "The School of Michelangelo".[10] Legend has it thatPope Julius II requested that Michelangelo complete the statue fragment with arms, legs and a face. He respectfully declined, stating that it was too beautiful to be altered, and instead used it as the inspiration for several of the figures on theSistine Chapel ceiling, including theSibyls and Prophets along the borders, and both the risen Christ andSt. Bartholomew inThe Last Judgement.[11] Early drawings of the Torso were made byAmico Aspertini, c. 1500–1503, byMartin van Heemskerck, c. 1532–1536, byHendrick Goltzius, c. 1590; the Belvedere Torso entered the visual repertory of connoisseurs and artists unable to go to Rome through the engraving of it byGiovanni Antonio da Brescia, c. 1515.[12] The Belvedere Torso remains one of the few ancient sculptures admired in the 17th and 18th centuries whose reputation has not suffered in modern times.[13]
Several small bronze reductions of it were made during the 16th century,[14] often restoring it as a seated Hercules.[15]
The Belvedere Torso visited theBritish Museum for its 2015 exhibition on the human body in ancient Greek art.[16]
Media related toBelvedere Torso at Wikimedia Commons