Apollo Belvedere facts for kids

The Apollo Belvedere is a famous marble sculpture from ancient times. It is also known as the Belvedere Apollo or the Pythian Apollo.

The statue was made around 120–140 AD. It is a Roman copy of an older bronze statue. The original was created by the Greek sculptor Leochares between 330 and 320 B.C.

It was lost for many centuries but was found again in Italy in the late 1400s during the Italian Renaissance. In 1511, it was put on display in the Vatican Palace. Today, you can see it in the Pio-Clementine Museum, which is part of the Vatican Museums.

For hundreds of years, many people believed it was the greatest and most perfect ancient sculpture ever made.

What Does the Statue Show?

The statue shows the Greek god Apollo as a standing archer who has just fired an arrow. Experts don't agree on the exact story it shows. One popular idea is that Apollo has just defeated Python, a monster serpent that guarded the sacred site of Delphi. This is why the statue is sometimes called the Pythian Apollo.

Other ideas are that the statue shows Apollo protecting his mother, Leto, from the giant Tityos, or another story about a family called the Niobids.

A Closer Look at the Details

The Apollo Belvedere is a large statue made of white marble. It is 2.24 meters (7.3 feet) tall. The pose of the statue, called contrapposto, has been greatly admired. This technique makes the figure look relaxed and natural, as if it could be viewed from both the front and the side at the same time.

Apollo's muscles look like he has just used his strength to shoot his bow. His curly hair flows down his neck and is held back by a band called a strophium. This band was a symbol worn by gods and kings. His quiver for holding arrows is slung over his right shoulder.

The statue shows Apollo without clothes, except for his sandals and a robe called a chlamys. The robe is fastened on his right shoulder and draped over his left arm.

How Was the Statue Repaired?

When the statue was discovered, the lower part of the right arm and the left hand were missing. They were restored in the 1500s by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, a student of the famous artist Michelangelo.

More recently, the statue went through a five-year restoration that finished in 2024. During this time, the left hand was replaced with a new one. This new hand is a copy of an ancient plaster cast of the original statue's hand that was found in a place called Baia. This means the new hand is much closer to how the original statue looked.

Why is the Apollo Belvedere Famous?

The Apollo Belvedere has inspired many artists for centuries. Its powerful and graceful pose has been copied and referenced in many other famous works of art.

Influence on Art

• The famous artist Albrecht Dürer used the pose of Apollo for the figure of Adam in his 1504 artwork, Adam and Eve.
• The sculptor Antonio Canova was inspired by it when he created his statue of Perseus in 1801.
• The American sculptor Thomas Crawford used a similar pose for his sculpture Orpheus and Cerberus.
• The head of the Apollo Belvedere appears in the 1914 painting The Song of Love by Giorgio de Chirico.
• The pose of the main figure in the 1850 painting The Sower by Jean-François Millet was influenced by the statue.
• The Minute Man, a famous 1874 statue by Daniel Chester French in Concord, Massachusetts, also shows the influence of the Apollo Belvedere.