Apollo Belvedere
French School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1800 - 1820
Materials
Gilt-bronze on marble
Measurements
540 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 514994
Summary
Gilt-bronze, Apollo Belvedere, French School, after the antique, c. 1800-20. A gilt-bronze figure of the Apollo Belvedere, naked except for a cloak fastened at right shoulder, and a quiver worn on the strap over his right shoulder. He strides forward, head turned to his left and his left arm and hand outstretched, holding a bow which he has presumably just fired off. Right hand open. By his right leg is a support in the form of a tree-trunk. On a circular gilt-bronze base, mounted on a socle made of breccia nuvolata and verde antico marble. The quiver is attached by means of a screw; the bow, with wonderfully modelled lion heads at each end, is made separately in two parts, which are screwed into Apollo’s hand. A pair to the figure of Diana the Huntress (NT 514993).
Full description
A pair with the similar figure of Diana the Huntress (NT 514993). The two children of Jupiter and the nymph Latona, Apollo and Diana were among the twelve major gods of Olympus. Apollo was the god of the sun. Symbolising the rational and civilised side of human nature, he was also the embodiment of ideal male physical beauty, as seen in the Apollo Belvedere, the famous antique marble statue, of which this bronze is a small-scale copy (Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900, New Haven/London 1981, pp.148-51, no. 8, fig. 77). The Apollo Belvedere is first definitely recorded in Rome in 1509 in the Vatican, to which it had been brought by Pope Julius II. By 1523 it was on display in a niche in the Belvedere courtyard in the Vatican, from whence it derives its name. The sculpture quickly came to be regarded as one of the very greatest works of art anywhere in the world, retaining this hallowed status until well into the nineteenth century. It was therefore perhaps regarded by the French as their chief prize, when they expropriated numerous works of art from Italy, following the Treaty of Tolentino in 1797. The Apollo Belvedere reached Paris along with many other antiquities and works of art in July 1798, where it was displayed within a garlanded case in a triumphal parade. In 1800 it was one of the highlights of the new Musée Central des Arts, later to become the Musée Napoléon, and then the Musée du Louvre. In 1815, following Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the Apollo Belvedere was returned to Rome and placed back in the Belvedere courtyard. Long regarded as a masterpiece of early Greek sculpture, it is now recognised as a Roman copy of a Greek original, possibly a famous statue of Apollo by the 4th-century B.C. sculptor Leochares. From an early date the Apollo Belvedere was paired with the Diana, also copied from an original by Leochares, both in writings on classical sculpture and as copies such as the present pair of statuettes. This fine pair of Apollo and Diana are characteristic examples of the refined bronzes, often gilded, made during the Empire period. Empire style was especially fashionable during the period c. 1800-15, when Napoleon Bonaparte had himself crowned emperor of the French, although it continued to be popular into the 1820s. Empire style is strongly Neo-classical, taking its inspiration from the art of ancient Greece and Rome, but interpreting it in an extremely pure and refined manner, as can be seen from this pair of bronze statuettes – see for example the exquisitely detailed bow held by Apollo. The statuette copies the marble original closely, with the addition of the bow, missing in the Vatican marble. As both the Diana and the Apollo Belvedere were triumphantly on show in Paris in the Musée Napoléon during the period 1800-15, there would no doubt have been strong demand at this time for small paired versions. Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
French School, sculptor
References
Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 140.