08/17/2026
Info dump!!! This head in reduced size is from the famous statue of the Apollo Belvedere that stands at about 90 inches tall. Apollo is in motion, standing in contrapposto, and looking off to the left. He is shown n**e save for his sandals and the chlamys (cloak) he wears, the end of which is draped over his extended left arm. A quiver is visible behind his right shoulder while its belt wraps around his chest. Although the forearms and hands are missing, art historians hypothesize that the god is depicted the moment after releasing an arrow from a bow he would have held in his left hand. His taut muscles also point to this theory. It is widely accepted that the sculpture may represent the myth of Apollo’s defeat of the serpent, known as Python, that guarded Delphi. The marble currently has restored forearms and hands, and the left hand grasps a portion of a bow.
The sculpture is a Roman marble copy of a Greek bronze original, likely made in the 4th century B.C.E. It is attributed to Leochares, one of the master sculptors of Hellenistic Greece. He and fellow sculptor Skopas created the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Discovered in Rome, the statue belonged to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere who, once elected Pope Julius II, transferred it to the Vatican circa 1508. For a time, it stood in the Belvedere Gallery, from which it gets its name.
