Belvedere torso sculpture in white marble, seated and headless, bending forward over a draped rock on a pale marble block
Front view of the marble Belvedere torso: chest bent forward, grey veins across the shoulder, thighs ending in rough breaks
Back of the marble Belvedere torso: modelled back muscles, a diagonal vein and two small drilled holes above the rock seat
Marble Belvedere torso in a sculpture yard, a terracotta planter on a pallet behind it and a carved stone urn to the right
Marble Belvedere torso on its pale block on gravel, seen from above, with a wooden pallet and a terracotta jar behind
Marble Belvedere torso in three-quarter view on a gravel path, with lawn and a large carved stone urn behind
Detail of the marble Belvedere torso from behind and above: shoulder blade, back muscles and a drilled hole by the seat
Side detail of the marble Belvedere torso: veined flank and the animal skin hanging over the rock seat, on a pale block
Marble Belvedere torso in a yard with terracotta planters, a bearded marble bust on a black plinth and a carved stone urn
Marble Belvedere torso in three-quarter view on gravel, one thigh reaching forward, carved stone urns and lawn behind
Marble Belvedere torso in three-quarter view on a white background, the chest twisting above the thighs, on a pale block

Kuzco Art Maison

Belvedere Torso Sculpture in Marble

Sale price€2.955,00
Made-to-order
Pickup currently unavailable at Showroom Amsterdam

Belvedere Torso Sculpture in Marble

Showroom Amsterdam

Pickup currently unavailable

Hekelveld 1
1012 SN Amsterdam
Netherlands

+31633931813
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This Belvedere torso is hand-carved in white marble and turns sharply at the waist: the chest swings one way, the thighs the other, and the body bends forward over a rock draped with an animal skin. Ridges of muscle fold across the abdomen where the twist is tightest.

This new sculpture is carved by hand, breaks included. Neck, shoulders and thighs end in rough, granular stone, left unpolished against the smooth skin, so the piece reads as a fragment, as its model does. Fine grey and ochre veins cross the chest, and the figure sits on a plain block of pale marble.

That model is the Belvedere Torso in the Vatican Museums, signed by the Athenian sculptor Apollonios in the first century BC, probably after a Greek bronze; the museum's preferred reading is Ajax contemplating his suicide. Michelangelo used it as a model for figures in the Sistine Chapel, and with the Ares Borghese type it set the pattern for the heroic male nude.

At 84 cm high, the torso can stand on its own block on the floor of a bay window, with no further plinth; side light there picks out the twist of the abdomen. From behind, the back is worked as fully as the front, down to the shoulder blades and the groove of the spine.

Discover more. Request the catalogue.