GRAND TOUR MODEL OF THE PYTHIAN APOLLO BELVEDERE
Probably Italian, possibly French, circa 1860 to 1890
Unmarked

Patinated sand-cast bronze

21 3/8" H x 13 1/4" W x 8" D

This bronze is a reduced cast after the celebrated Apollo Belvedere in the Vatican Museums, one of the most widely admired sculptures of antiquity from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. The Vatican marble, now in the Museo Pio Clementino, is generally dated to the Hadrianic period, circa 130 to 140 A.D. Since around 1892, the sculpture has been frequently identified as being a copy of the long-lost Greek bronze statue of Apollo executed by Leochares in the fourth century B.C.

Apollo is shown as a youthful hunter, advancing with the body in motion, the head turned to the side and the left arm extended in a gesture that almost certainly raised a bow originally. The god wears a cloak drawn across the shoulder and arm, a baldric across the torso while his feet are strapped with thong sandals. A tree trunk supports the figure, touching his wrist and hip, while a serpent slithers up the trunk towards his open wrist.

The Apollo Belvedere was rediscovered in central Italy in the late fifteenth century and was probably in the collection of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, later Pope Julius II. It was moved to the Vatican in 1509 and installed in the Cortile del Belvedere in 1511, from which the sculpture takes its modern name. Its reputation made it one of the defining models of ideal male beauty in European art and a standard subject for bronze reductions in the nineteenth century. When the young American painter Benjamin West arrived in Rome in the summer of 1760, he stood in the Belvedere courtyard and upon seeing Apollo was said to exclaim "My God, how like it is to a young Mohawk warrior."

The present cast belongs to the Grand Tour era when the best art foundries produced reductions of the most important works of antiquity for discerning collectors and patrons. The cast features exquisite attention to detail, articulation of the scales of the snake, nails of the figure and chiseling and texturing to his hair to juxtapose perfectly smooth and chased flesh. The patination is together chemical and lacquer enhanced, much of the surface appearing to be quite early and likely original. Careful attention has been shown to the details, while the surface of the flesh models itself after the soft translucent bokeh of white marble in the original, an effect that subtly removes the figure from reality. 

For a lengthy discussion of the model of antiquity, see Taste and the Antique, Haskell & Penny, 1981, p. 148-151.

Condition: Discoloration and staining to patination, as expected. A very fine presentation. Typical seam visibility in the joints between the individual elements of the casting. Ready to place.

ref. 603PRP31X