The Belvedere Torso, a profoundly influential Hellenistic sculpture by Apollonius the Athenian, is on display in the Vatican Museums:
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| Apollonius the Athenian, The Belvedere Torso, The Vatican Museums |
Here is
Study of the Belvedere Torso by
Peter Paul Rubens from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
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Study of the Belvedere Torso, ca. 1601–2
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
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Red chalk
15 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. (39.5 x 26 cm)
Inscribed at lower left: P Rubens, 342
Recto:The Virgin Adored by Saints, pen and brown ink, ca. 1627
Purchase, 2001 Benefit Fund, 2002 (2002.12b)
NOT ON VIEW Last Updated August 25, 2011
This drawing was made by Rubens as a young man on his first trip to Rome, in 1601–2. It is a study of the back view of the Belvedere Torso, an antique sculpture dating to the first century B.C., which belonged to the Colonna family in the seventeenth century and is today in the Vatican Museums. Using red chalk and a technique of soft overlapping hatching, Rubens produced lifelike results that belie the marble material of his subject.
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| Apollonius the Athenian, The Belvedere Torso, The Vatican Museums |
