Italian school; 19th century.

Italian school; 19th century.
"Apollo of the Belvedere".
Carved alabaster.
Missing and losses.
Measures: 36 x 11 cm (total).
Nineteenth-century reproduction of the Apollo Belvedere, a work attributed to the Greek sculptor Leocares (350-300 BC). Although the original has been lost, an ancient Roman copy has survived, discovered at the end of the 15th century and exhibited in the Cortile del Belvedere in the Vatican from 1511. In fact, it was the first important ancient piece acquired by Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II, and is still in the collection of the Vatican Museums today. The work acquired great fame from the 15th century onwards, and for a long time was considered an ideal of male physical perfection, as well as one of the most precious relics of classical antiquity. The sculpture was widely disseminated, both through copies and engravings, until it became one of the symbols of Western civilisation. However, from the mid-19th century it gradually lost prestige, and by the beginning of the 20th century it had come to be regarded as a creation without expression. However, its artistic merit has since been widely recognised.

The term "Grand Tour", which first appeared in Richard Lassels's "Voyage d'Italie", was used to define the long journey through Europe, especially Italy, which was usually undertaken by young British aristocrats from the 17th century onwards, but especially throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The purpose of the journey was for young people to become acquainted with the art and culture of mainly France and Italy, to admire classical art at first hand, to learn or improve their knowledge of languages, and to establish contacts and relationships with the cultural and political elites of these countries. Travellers were often looking for pieces with which to start their own art collections, objects to take back to their places of residence as souvenirs. For this reason, workshops specialising in the replication of Roman pieces, both in bronze and marble, sprang up, some of which acquired a great reputation.