A white marble statue of Apollo shown as a standing archer, caught in contrapposto just after loosing an arrow, conventionally read as the moment after his slaying of the serpent Python, though other readings exist. It is a Roman copy of about AD 120 to 140, made after a lost Greek bronze original attributed to the sculptor Leochares and dated around 330 to 320 BC. Rediscovered in central Italy around 1489, it was brought into the papal collection by Pope Julius II in the early sixteenth century and has stood in the Cortile del Belvedere of the Pio-Clementino Museum, part of the Vatican Museums, ever since. From the mid-eighteenth century, championed by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, it was held up by neoclassicists as the single greatest surviving work of ancient sculpture, an ideal of aesthetic perfection across Western art for two centuries. A restoration completed in 2024 by Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums found traces of gilding, indicating the statue's hair was originally painted or gilded gold.
Facts
Origins
CreationSourced to the subject's own account Date of CreationSourced to the subject's own accountAbout AD 120 to 140 (Roman copy of a Greek original of c.330-320 BC) 1 Attributed ToSourced to the subject's own accountAfter a lost bronze original by Leochares 1 CountrySourced to the subject's own account Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectSourced to the subject's own accountApollo as a standing archer, shown just after loosing an arrow, conventionally read as the moment after slaying the serpent Python. 1 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightSourced to the subject's own accountThe statue itself is centuries past any copyright term, but a specific modern photograph of it carries its own separate copyright. This atlas describes and cites the work rather than reproducing an image of it. 2 Physical Form
MediumSourced to the subject's own account DimensionsSourced to the subject's own account Custody
Current LocationSourced to the subject's own accountCortile del Belvedere, Pio-Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums 2 Current CustodianSourced to the subject's own account In Other Languages (9 names)
- أبولو بلفيدير
- Апалон Бельведэрскі
- Аполон Белведерски
- Apollo del Belvedere
- Apol·lo del Belvedere
- Apollón Belvederský
- Apollo von Belvedere
- Απόλλων του Μπελβεντέρε
- Apolono-Belvedero
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Apollo directly: "A white marble statue of Apollo shown as a standing archer, caught in contrapposto just after loosing an arrow, conventionally read as the moment after his slaying of the serpent Python, though..."
This source names Julius II directly: "into the papal collection by Pope Julius II in the early sixteenth century and has stood in the Cortile del Belvedere of the Pio-Clementino Museum, part of the Vatican Museums, ever since."
This source names Vatican Museums directly: "the Pio-Clementino Museum, part of the Vatican Museums, ever since."
Belongs to Tradition
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