Torso from the Belvedere
The torso of the Belvedere is the fragment of an ancient statue of a seated person. The probably from the 1st century BC. Torso from the 4th century BC is located under inventory number 1192 in the Sala delle Muse of the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican Museums .
history
The torso was created by the Athenian sculptor Apollonios of Athens , who also signed it. However, it cannot be ruled out that it is a Roman copy of an older work of art. The dating varies between 200 and 50 BC. Chr.
The statue was probably found around 1420 on Colonna's property. The torso was first mentioned between 1432 and 1435 by Cyriacus of Ancona , who added the artist's signature to his collection of inscriptions. At the time, the torso was in the possession of Cardinal Prospero Colonna . After his death in 1463, the piece came into the possession of the sculptor Andrea Bregno and was the most valuable object in his antique collection. Around 1500 an author who wrote under the pseudonym “Prospettivo Milanese” and who has not yet been identified saw it there. As part of his description of the city of Rome, written in terzines and preserved in only one incunabulum , he dedicated the stanza to the torso:
“Poscia in casa dun certo mastrandrea / ve vn nudo corpo senza braze collo / che mai visto non ho miglior diprea”
Michelangelo , who was close friends with Andrea Bregno in his first years in Rome, should have seen this statue on him. It finally came to the Vatican Museum between 1530 and 1536 . The torso was eventually named after its original location, the Belvedere Courtyard of the Vatican. As a result of the Treaty of Tolentino , the torso of Napoleon Bonaparte was confiscated and brought to Paris. Finally, after the Congress of Vienna, under the direction of Antonio Canova, he returned to the Belvedere in Rome. Since 1973 it has been exhibited in the Sala delle Muse des Museo Pio-Clementino.
Since his rediscovery, he has repeatedly cast a spell over high-ranking artists such as Maarten van Heemskerck , Michelangelo , Peter Paul Rubens , Francisco de Goya , who were captivated by the unbroken expressiveness of sculpture. The torso therefore plays a not insignificant role not only in the history of art in antiquity, but especially in the Renaissance.
description
Only the torso and thighs remain of the statue; The head, arms and lower legs are lost. The size is 1.59 meters. The sculpture shows the upper body of a man sitting in the great outdoors who is only wrapped in a panther skin that does not cover his nakedness. The upper body and legs suggest an extremely muscular man who is in a tense position.
Reception and interpretation
A great admirer of the statue was Michelangelo, who, according to legend, refused to obey the order of Pope Julius II and to complete the torso. Many versions of the statue's original appearance have been discussed in science for some clue to its interpretation. A representation of Heracles was accepted for a long time. However, it was important to realize that the figure is sitting on the skin of a panther and not a lion, as would be expected for Heracles. Afterwards, the injured Philoctetes or the seated Greek hero Aias was seen in the torso shortly before his suicide. In 1907, however, Karolo Hadaczek had already observed that the ancient hole on the back of the torso was used to hold a satyr's tail. If this observation, which Vinzenz Brinkmann confirmed in 2012, is true, the torso should show the Silen Marsyas shortly before his death by molting.
“At first sight you may discover nothing but a defaced stone; but if you are able to penetrate into the secrets of art, you will see a miracle of it if you look at this work with a calm eye. "
literature
- Karolo Hadaczek: Marsyas. In: Annual books of the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Volume 10, 1907, pp. 312-317 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Christa Schwinn: The importance of the belvedere torso for theory and practice of the fine arts, from the 16th century to Winckelmann. Lang, Bern / Frankfurt a. M. 1973.
- Raimund Wünsche : The torso of the Belvedere, monument to the pensive Aias. In: Munich Yearbook of Fine Arts. Volume 44, 1993, pp. 7-46.
- Raimund Wünsche: Torso from the Belvedere. In: Matthias Winner , Bernard Andreae , Carlo Pietrangeli (eds.): Il Cortile delle Statue. The statue courtyard of the Belvedere in the Vatican. Files of the international congress in honor of Richard Krautheimer, Rome, 21. – 23. October 1992. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, pp. 287-314.
- Raimund Wünsche (Ed.): The torso. Fame and mystery. An exhibition by the Staatliche Antikensammlungen and Glyptothek Munich in collaboration with the Vatican Museums, Rome. Glyptothek Munich, January 21 to March 29, 1998. Staatliche Antikensammlungen and Glyptothek, Munich 1998.
- Thomas Pöpper: Sculptures for the Papacy. Life and work of Andrea Bregno. Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-938442-86-9 .
- Vinzenz Brinkmann : Back to the classic. In: Back to the classic. A new look at ancient Greece. Hirmer, Munich 2013, pp. 55–57.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Then in the house of a certain master Andrea there was a naked body without arms and neck, as I had never seen it made of stone ( diprea = di pietra )"; for the text see Anonymus: Antiquarie Prospettiche Romane composte per prospettivo milanese dipintore Carta 1 Recto Colonna II ; on the work and anonymity see Gilberto Govi: Intorno a un opuscolo rarissimo della fine del secolo XV, intitolato: Antiquarie prospettiche romane composte per prospettivo milanese dipintore. In: Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Series 2, Volume 3, 1875-1876, pp. 39-66; franuvolo.it (PDF). Doris Diana Fienga: The Antiquarie prospetiche romane composte per prospectivo melanese depictore. A document for the study of the relationship between Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. Dissertation at the University of California, Los Angeles 1970. Doris Diana Fienga: Bramante, l'autore delle Antiquarie Prospettiche Romane, poemetto dedicato a Leonardo da Vinci. In: Comitato nazionale per le celebrazioni Bramantesche (ed.): Studi Bramanteschi. Atti del Congresso internazionale Milano, Urbino, Roma 1970. De Luca, Rome 1974, pp. 417-426.
- ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Description of the torso in the Belvedere in Rome. Essay, Rome 1759; in the Gutenberg.de project