Apollo Belvedere

Apollo is the god of the sun and light, who also protects agriculture. As the god of poetry and music, he stands at the head of the nine muses on Parnassus.

Apollo Belvedere is named after the part of the Vatican where the original plaster of the Academy of Arts has stood since the beginning of the 1500th century. Here the god is depicted as an archer: he carries a quiver of arrows on his back and the remains of the bow are visible in his left hand. Perhaps he has just aimed at the mythical dragon Python?

The Art Academy's plaster cast of Apollo came to Sweden in 1698 and was ordered by the castle architect Nicodemus Tessin on behalf of the king. From 1780 it has been able to be studied by students in the Academy's art school. Here, the young and calmly controlled Apollo became an important contrast to the dramatic and tragic in the Laocoon group, which still stands in the same room today. The muscular male body was thus an ideal that could be studied in several different ancient variants.

The Art Academy's catalog of the collections from 1806, underlines that the Apollo Belvedere was a first class work of art: – the most sublime, nuanced and engaging preserved from Antiquity. No wonder there are many student drawings of this sculpture. And that it also inspired Sergel when he designed Gustav III's statue at Skeppsbron.