Belvedere Torso by Apollonius

Michelangelo’s Inspiration: The
Belvedere Torso
The story of an ancient sculpture that inspired artists from the
Renaissance onwards
Detail of the Belvedere Torso by Apollonius at the Pio-Clementio Museum in the Vatican City.
Source Wikimedia Commons
The Belvedere Torso was an example of a work whose style and

technique were thought to express the perfection of the ancient past.
One artist who was especially impressed with the statue was
Michelangelo (1475–1564). He admired the contorted pose of the torso,
how it twists around on itself to bring out the muscularity of the whole
body.
The Belvedere Torso by Apollonius at the Pio-Clementio Museum in the Vatican City.
The Belvedere Torso was a fragmentary statue carved sometime

around the 1st century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the
15th century in Rome, probably excavated from among the ancient
ruins.
Over the course of the next hundred years, the marble sculpture gained
admirers and went on to become a significant point of reference for
Michelangelo and many other artists.
The figure probably represents Hercules, because of the animal hide

the figure is sitting on. The artist who made it left a signature on the
stone block beneath the figure: “Apollonius, son of Nestor, Athenian”.
Because of its style, it is generally thought that Apollonius modelled the
figure on an earlier Greek sculpture from sometime between 2nd and
4th centuries BC.
After its discovering in 15th century Rome, the statue slowly began to
attract the attention of artists and scholars, many of whom made
detailed drawings of the object. One can presume they were drawn to
the corporal quality the form, to the realism of the anatomical details,
its substantial weight and palpable sense of strength.
In Renaissance Italy, it was commonly assumed that the cultures of

ancient Greece and Rome had achieved a pinnacle of aesthetic purity in
their buildings and artworks. Since that time — during the “middle
ages” — the arts and the humanities had suffered a decline, one that
could be reversed, even surpassed, by a re-acquaintance with the
techniques of the classical past.
The word Renaissance is a familiar term in the history of art. And yet,

it’s not always an easy notion to get to grips with.
To describe it simply, the Renaissance was a period of time, centred

mainly around Italy, in which the arts flourished under a concentration
of commissions from influential patrons. It was spurred on by the
rediscovery of texts and objects from the ancient world of Rome and
Greece, whose literature, learning, and politics were admired as an age
of high achievement.
The Belvedere Torso is a good example of one such object. For

Michelangelo, the life-likeness of the sculpture, combined with the way
it idealises the male form, was symbolic of the sculptor’s powers of
creation. It indicated to him how an artist can mirror nature and even
transcend it to become an independent and creative force through his
own endeavour.
The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel (c. 1511) by Michelangelo. Vatican Museums.
It’s not surprising, therefore, to see the influence of the Belvedere

Torso in Michelangelo’s own art, some of which have gone on to
become the most famous images ever made.
In the scene of The Creation of Adam painted on the ceiling of the

Sistine Chapel in around 1511, the body of Adam is deeply reminiscent
of the ancient statue. The muscular definition of Adam’s torso and the
way that the upper and lower halves of the body are twisted to allow
Michelangelo to delineate the structure of the body, have their roots in
the Belvedere sculpture.
Detail of Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement” (Sistine Chapel) showing Saint Bartholomew
holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin, (1535–1541). Source Wikimedia
Commons
Similarly, in The Last Judgement fresco, painted on the end wall of the

Sistine Chapel, the figure identified as Saint Bartholomew — who,
rather morbidly, is seen holding the knife of his martyrdom and his
flayed skin — assumes a posture that is clearly drawn from the
Belvedere model.
Most noticeably is the arrangement of the Saint’s legs, which sit astride
the cloud. Michelangelo used variations of this posture in several of his
sculptures as well as in his paintings. The marble statue
of Victory (c.1519) and the Rebellious Slave (1513) both adopt a
similarly awkward turn-twist motion, with the legs askew and the
upper body turned to one side.
The Belvedere Torso remained popular with artists across the centuries
that followed. The hugely influential art historian and archaeologist
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), who pioneered the
academic study of classical art, wrote enthusiastically of the Belvedere
Torso. He described the “deified form” of the figure, “an immortal
body, which, nevertheless, has retained strength and elasticity equal to
those great labours he has accomplished.”
In the 17th century, the painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) made
sketches of the statue, whose monumental energy can clearly be seen in
his overall painting style. In the 18th century, Antonio Canova (1757–
1822) continued to draw inspiration from the torso for his Neo-
classical sculptures. And in the 19th century, the sculptor Auguste
Rodin (1840–1917) is thought to have used the Belvedere statue as
inspiration for his work The Thinker.
Belvedere Torso (c. 1602) by Peter Paul Rubens. Pencil and black chalk on paper.
And so it’s possible to trace the chain of influence — from a lost ancient
Greek sculpture, to a Roman copy made by Apollonius, itself lost until
its rediscovery in Renaissance Rome, through the various artworks
made by subsequent generations of painters and sculptors. In this way,
the Belvedere Torso helps us to understand how ancient classical art
was venerated by European artists, and how its influence helped shape
the art of the last 500 years.
The Belvedere Torso can be seen in the Vatican Museums, Rome.

Belvedere Torso by Apollonius

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Michelangelo’s Inspiration: The

The Belvedere Torso was an example of a work whose style and

The Belvedere Torso was a fragmentary statue carved sometime

The figure probably represents Hercules, because of the animal hide

In Renaissance Italy, it was commonly assumed that the cultures of

The word Renaissance is a familiar term in the history of art. And yet,

To describe it simply, the Renaissance was a period of time, centred

The Belvedere Torso is a good example of one such object. For

It’s not surprising, therefore, to see the influence of the Belvedere

In the scene of The Creation of Adam painted on the ceiling of the

Similarly, in The Last Judgement fresco, painted on the end wall of the

The Belvedere Torso can be seen in the Vatican Museums, Rome.

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