Mr. Belvedere

Bronze on Marble Base, 11" high, Edition of 25

There is a marble sculpture in the Vatican Museum called The Belvedere Torso carved by the Greek sculptor Apollonius in the 1st-century B.C. It is broken, and reduced to a fragment of a male figure. I had the fortunate opportunity to visit the Vatican in 1997 and I took photos of it from all points of view. (While taking the photos the husband of a friend of mine whispered in my ear "What are you taking pictures of that for? There's not much left of it!") It is an awesome sculpture. It may have been carved for placement in a niche because the back is not fully developed, but I wouldn't change a thing. It is perfect just the way it is in its bleached out and broken state. This sculpture was also greatly admired by and influenced the work of Michelangelo.

Mr. Belvedere is named after The Belvedere Torso, but it is not a copy of it. It began as a study from a model. After the model had left the studio I began playing with composition by cropping here and there. Soon I began to recognize that the pose of my sculpture was similar to the Vatican sculpture and it brought back all the wonderful memories of my visit to the museum and The Belvedere Torso.

I completed my sculpture with those memories in my heart and called him "Mr. Belvedere", or should I say "il Signore Belvedere"!