The so-called Antinous Admirandus of the Belvedere
Hermes (Erme, Ermete) del Belvedere.
Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums, Rome.
The Hermes of the Museo Pio-Clementino, part of the Vatican collections, that was long admired as the Belvedere Antinous, named from its prominent placement in the Cortile del Belvedere.
It was also know as the Antinous Admirandus.
Its idealized face is not in fact that of Antinous, the Emperor Hadrian's beloved.
The cloak known as a chlamys, thrown over the left shoulder and wrapped round the left forearm, and the relaxed contrapposto identify the sculpture as a Hermes, one of a familiar Praxitelean type.
Today the sculpture is considered to be an Aadrianic copy (early second century CE) of a bronze by Praxiteles or one of his school.
At life size the statue shows a nude young man with a chlamys on his shoulder and left forearm.
It is a variant of the Andros type.
The Andros example has the chlamys and a serpent twined round the tree-support, with the tree and serpent allowing its definite identification as Hermes as psychopompus.
The sculpture was bought for the Farnese Pope Paul III in 1543, when a thousand ducats were paid to "Nicolaus de Palis for a very beautiful marble statue... which His Holiness has sent to be placed in the Belvedere garden".
The most likely site for its discovery is in a garden near Castel Sant'Angelo, where the Palis had property.
The statue was immediately famous, as the Antinous Admirandus.
It was mentioned in all the accounts of the antiquities to be seen in Rome, engraved in all the repertories of classical art, universally admired and copied in bronze and marble.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), recognised it as a statue "of the first class" and much admried the head, "undoubtedly one of the most beautiful heads of a young man from Antiquity", even though he criticised the working of its feet, stomach and legs.
In Winckelmann's time the statue's identification as Antinous had already been disproved, and the statue was, once again wrongly interpreted, as a Meleagro, hero of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), recognised it as a statue "of the first class" and much admried the head, "undoubtedly one of the most beautiful heads of a young man from Antiquity", even though he criticised the working of its feet, stomach and legs.
In Winckelmann's time the statue's identification as Antinous had already been disproved, and the statue was, once again wrongly interpreted, as a Meleagro, hero of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar.
It was finally identified as Hermes (Erme, Ermete) by the scholar Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818), in his catalogue of the Museo Pio-Clementino (1818-1822).
About Winckelmann's tragic death:
In 1768, the writer and art critic Winckelmann journeyed north over the Alps, and travelled to Munich and Vienna, where he was received with honor by Empress Maria Theresa.
On his way back, he was murdered at Trieste on June 8, 1768 in a hotel bed by Francesco Arcangeli, for medals that Maria Theresa had given him.
Johann Wolfgang von Gœthe, who thought highly of Winckelmann, said about him:
“So we find Winckelmann often in relations to beautiful youths, and never does he appear more cheerful and amiable than in such often only fleeting moments.”
Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert (1805).
The so-called "Belvedere Antinous" had a decisive influence in the history of art of the classical antiquity, for artists of the Renaissance as well as of the Baroque, have been inspired by it, creating copies or new interpretations of it.
The first mention of the so-called Belvedere Antinous was on the 27th February 1543 when Nicolaus de Palis was paid 1.000 Ducats “for a beautiful marble statue, that His Sanctity ordered to be set up in the Belvedere Court”.
In 1555, Ulisse Aldovrandi (1522 - 1605) conveyed that the statue was found in “his times” in the Esquiline Hill, close to the church of San Martino ai Monti.
But a notice of M. Mercati, writing in the 1580s says, it was found in a garden by Castel Sant’Angelo, where the Palis family owned some land.
The Belvedere Antinous, due to the Tolentino Treaty (19/02/1797) was taken by the French to Paris in 1798 where it was exhibited in the Musée Central des Arts from 1800 to 1815.
The statue was returned to Rome on the 4th January 1816, and in February it went back to the Cortile Ottagono, the Belvedere Court in the Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican Museums.
Immediately after its discovery the statue aroused great excitement, and was considered to be an Antinous.
It soon found entryway to nearly all the descriptions of great works of art of Rome and was many times depicted by travelling artists.
Copies of the statue were made for the royals of France, England and Spain, in marble, in bronze.
It was as greatly esteemed by art collectors as by art experts, and it was studied by artists as Bernini, Nicholas Poussin or François Duquesnoy.
In 1753 William Hogarth praised the beauty in the proportions of the Belvedere Antinous as one of the most perfect work of the classical antiquity.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s judgement was positive too, even though he was a bit disappointed by beauty flaws in the forming of the legs, feet and navel, he praised the statue as “ an image of the gracefulness of precious youth and of the beauty of the blooming years, with charming innocence and gentle attraction”.
Ennio Quirino Visconti in the early 19th century identified the statue as MERCURIO and this is the opinion that nowadays perseveres.
He compared this statue with another of the same type in the British Museum known as the MERCURIO Farnese, because it was in the Farnese collections from 1546 to 1864.
This Hermes holds a Caduceus, the typical attribute of Hermes-Mercury.
Another replica of this type was found in a tomb in the Greek island of Andros, and since then is this type known as the“Hermes-Andros-Farnese”, being the so-called Belvedere Antinous the most important representative.
Ulisse Aldrovandi, "Delle statue antiche, che per tutta Roma, in diversi luoghi e case si veggono", Venezia, 1562:
Nel giardino di Belvedere...dietro al simolacro del Tevere, nel muro, sivede una statua di Antinoo, ignuda, intiera, in piè, ma senza un braccio, ha una banda avvolta su la spalla manca. Fu Antinoo un bellissimo garzonetto, et amata svisceratamente da Hadriano Imp. e, come appresso si dirà, si ritrovano per Roma molte teste di questo vago fanciullo. Questa statua che diciamo essere in Belvedere, fu ritrovata al tempo nostro su l'Esquilie presso a San Martino in Monti.
About Winckelmann's tragic death:
In 1768, the writer and art critic Winckelmann journeyed north over the Alps, and travelled to Munich and Vienna, where he was received with honor by Empress Maria Theresa.
On his way back, he was murdered at Trieste on June 8, 1768 in a hotel bed by Francesco Arcangeli, for medals that Maria Theresa had given him.
Johann Wolfgang von Gœthe, who thought highly of Winckelmann, said about him:
“So we find Winckelmann often in relations to beautiful youths, and never does he appear more cheerful and amiable than in such often only fleeting moments.”
Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert (1805).
The so-called "Belvedere Antinous" had a decisive influence in the history of art of the classical antiquity, for artists of the Renaissance as well as of the Baroque, have been inspired by it, creating copies or new interpretations of it.
The first mention of the so-called Belvedere Antinous was on the 27th February 1543 when Nicolaus de Palis was paid 1.000 Ducats “for a beautiful marble statue, that His Sanctity ordered to be set up in the Belvedere Court”.
In 1555, Ulisse Aldovrandi (1522 - 1605) conveyed that the statue was found in “his times” in the Esquiline Hill, close to the church of San Martino ai Monti.
But a notice of M. Mercati, writing in the 1580s says, it was found in a garden by Castel Sant’Angelo, where the Palis family owned some land.
The Belvedere Antinous, due to the Tolentino Treaty (19/02/1797) was taken by the French to Paris in 1798 where it was exhibited in the Musée Central des Arts from 1800 to 1815.
The statue was returned to Rome on the 4th January 1816, and in February it went back to the Cortile Ottagono, the Belvedere Court in the Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican Museums.
Immediately after its discovery the statue aroused great excitement, and was considered to be an Antinous.
It soon found entryway to nearly all the descriptions of great works of art of Rome and was many times depicted by travelling artists.
Copies of the statue were made for the royals of France, England and Spain, in marble, in bronze.
It was as greatly esteemed by art collectors as by art experts, and it was studied by artists as Bernini, Nicholas Poussin or François Duquesnoy.
In 1753 William Hogarth praised the beauty in the proportions of the Belvedere Antinous as one of the most perfect work of the classical antiquity.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s judgement was positive too, even though he was a bit disappointed by beauty flaws in the forming of the legs, feet and navel, he praised the statue as “ an image of the gracefulness of precious youth and of the beauty of the blooming years, with charming innocence and gentle attraction”.
Ennio Quirino Visconti in the early 19th century identified the statue as MERCURIO and this is the opinion that nowadays perseveres.
He compared this statue with another of the same type in the British Museum known as the MERCURIO Farnese, because it was in the Farnese collections from 1546 to 1864.
This Hermes holds a Caduceus, the typical attribute of Hermes-Mercury.
Another replica of this type was found in a tomb in the Greek island of Andros, and since then is this type known as the“Hermes-Andros-Farnese”, being the so-called Belvedere Antinous the most important representative.
Ulisse Aldrovandi, "Delle statue antiche, che per tutta Roma, in diversi luoghi e case si veggono", Venezia, 1562:
Nel giardino di Belvedere...dietro al simolacro del Tevere, nel muro, sivede una statua di Antinoo, ignuda, intiera, in piè, ma senza un braccio, ha una banda avvolta su la spalla manca. Fu Antinoo un bellissimo garzonetto, et amata svisceratamente da Hadriano Imp. e, come appresso si dirà, si ritrovano per Roma molte teste di questo vago fanciullo. Questa statua che diciamo essere in Belvedere, fu ritrovata al tempo nostro su l'Esquilie presso a San Martino in Monti.
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