The cast depicts a fragmentary naked male torso, of which part of the legs is also preserved. The character is seated on a rock, on which a panther skin rests and is characterized by the accurate anatomical rendering and strong muscular tension. The most accredited hypotheses today propose to identify in the statue the figure of the suffering Philoctetes, or of Ajax Telamon, who is meditating on suicide. The original work, from which the cast derives, is now preserved in the Pio Clementino Museum, found in Rome. The oldest mention of the sculpture dates back to 1400 and remembers it in the palace of Cardinal Prospero Colonna on the Quirinale; in 1530-1536 it passed to the Vatican. The statue is believed to be a copy of 30 BC, deriving from a rhodium original from the first half of the 2nd century BC
Title: cast of torso, so-called Belvedere torso
Author: Anonymous
Date:
Technique: Gesso
Displayed in: Museum of Classical Art
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