Rare Model of Apollo Belvedere with Plinth Early 20th Century

A rare model of The Apollo Belvedere, the celebrated marble sculpture from Classical Antiquity. Mid 20th Century in composition stone, on associated composition stone plinth.

Apollo is now thought to be an original Roman re-creation of Hadrianic date (ca. 120–140). Possibly a second-century marble copy of a bronze original by the Greek sculptor Leochares, the statue was immediately appreciated as a masterpiece and showered with praise, widely celebrated and thought to epitomise the ideal aesthetic perfection for Europeans and westernized parts of the world.

Apollo is depicted as a standing Archer having just shot an arrow. He wears distinctive Roman footwear and is draped in a dramatic cape. In Greek mythology Apollo is said to have just slain the serpent Python, the chthonic serpent guarding Delphi—making the sculpture a Pythian Apollo. Alternatively, it may be the slaying of the giant Tityos, who threatened his mother Leto, or the episode of the Niobids. The true tale of Apollo is unknown to this day. The original statue was rediscovered in Renaissance Italy in the late 15th century and was placed on semi-public display in the Vatican Palace in 1511, where it is now housed within the Cortile del Belvedere of the Pio-Clementine Museum of the Vatican Museums complex.

Height of Apollo 101cm. Plinth size 93 h x 47 w cm.