Belvedere Torso. The Belvedere Torso is a fragmentary marble statue of a nude male, 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 the Museo Pio-Clementino of the Vatican Museums. It was once believed to be a 1st-century BC original, but is now believed to be a copy from the 1st century BC or AD of an older statue, which probably dated to the early 2nd century BC. The figure is portrayed seated on an animal hide, and its precise identification remains open to debate.
Though traditionally identified as a Heracles seated on the skin of the Nemean lion, recent studies have identified the skin as that of a panther, occasioning other identifications. According to the Vatican Museum website, the most favoured hypothesis identifies it with Ajax, the son of Telamon, in the act of contemplating his suicide.
The statue is documented in the collection of Cardinal Prospero Colonna at his family's palazzo in Monte Cavallo, Rome from 1433, not because it elicited admiration but because an antiquarian epigrapher, Ciriaco d'Ancona made note of its inscription; a generation later it began its career as a catalyst of the classical revival. Early drawings of the Torso were made by Amico Aspertini, c. 1500-03, by Martin van Heemskerck, c. 1532-36, by Hendrick Goltzius, c. 1590; the Be
It is now in the Museo Pio-Clementino of the Vatican Museums. It was once believed to be a 1st-century BC original, but is now believed to be a copy from the 1st century BC or AD of an older statue, which probably dated to the early 2nd century BC. The figure is portrayed seated on an animal hide, and its precise identification remains open to debate.
Though traditionally identified as a Heracles seated on the skin of the Nemean lion, recent studies have identified the skin as that of a panther, occasioning other identifications. According to the Vatican Museum website, the most favoured hypothesis identifies it with Ajax, the son of Telamon, in the act of contemplating his suicide.
The statue is documented in the collection of Cardinal Prospero Colonna at his family's palazzo in Monte Cavallo, Rome from 1433, not because it elicited admiration but because an antiquarian epigrapher, Ciriaco d'Ancona made note of its inscription; a generation later it began its career as a catalyst of the classical revival. Early drawings of the Torso were made by Amico Aspertini, c. 1500-03, by Martin van Heemskerck, c. 1532-36, by Hendrick Goltzius, c. 1590; the Be
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