Belvedere Torso
- Title:
- Belvedere Torso
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Apollonios of Athens, son of Nestor
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
first half of the 1st c. BCE (proposed copy)
3rd or 2nd c. BCE (proposed Hellenistic original)
- Site:
- Rome (discovery site, first half of 15th c.) (original)
- Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall (Room 128), Cornell University
Rome (discovery site, first half of 15th c.) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0720
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 285
285 (sticker in front)
693 - File Name:
- CCC_0720.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 159 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Republican or Imperial Roman, after Hellenistic Greek
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Belvedere Torso
sculpture - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 126 x ca. 73 x ca. 95 (centimeters)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the Belvedere Torso, a battered statue of a seated, nude, muscular male missing its head, arms, and lower legs. It is housed in the Vatican Museums. The figure sits on the skin of a panther that has been laid out over a rock. A small portion of the animal's hide rests on his left thigh. He leans forward and twists his torso up and toward the left. The front of his pectoral muscles and neck have been sheered away, as have the backs of his buttocks. The signature of the sculptor, Apollonios of Athens, son of Nestor, is written at the front of the rock, highlighted in red in this cast. Scholarly opinion generally holds that the Torso is a first century BCE copy of an earlier original, probably of the third or early second century BCE. The identity of the figure represented remains an open question. Early on he was identified as Herakles because the hide covering the rock was believed to be that of the Nemean Lion. While identification as Herakles remains a possibility, Marsyas or another satyr and Ajax contemplating suicide, among others, have also been proposed. The Belvedere Torso was discovered in Rome in the first half of the 15th century. It is recorded in the Belvedere court of the Vatican in the early part of the 16th century and was greatly admired, drawn, and copied from that time on. Its long-lasting, wide-reaching fame stems largely from the high esteem in which Michelangelo held it. Unlike so many other sculptures, it escaped reconstruction during and after the Renaissance.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
Pio Clementino no. 1192 - Bibliography:
- Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 311-314
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Rome, Vatican Museums (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.