Study After a Roman Sculpture of Apollo

Author: Klazina Botke

This pen and ink study was drawn after a Roman sculpture from the second century AD. The marble sculpture itself, which we are here connecting with the drawing for the first time, found its way into a private American collection (fig.).^[1] It is of the god Apollo, but lacks the head and both arms. His chlamys, a shoulder-length travelling cloak is fastened with a pin at his right shoulder. His legs are incomplete in the drawing, and the tree-trunk added by the sculptor to support the figure is suggested with just a single line. The only minor difference between drawing and sculpture lies in the folds of the chlamys.

It was around the beginning of the fifteenth century that Europe began to rediscover classical culture, which in turn sparked widespread interest in the remnants of Greco-Roman civilization. The Italian historian Flavio Biondo (1392-1463) wrote the first systematic guide to the ruins and topography of classical Rome in 1444-48.^[2] Major archaeological excavations were undertaken in and around the city. Pope Julius II (1443-1513) installed the finest pieces in the Vatican sculpture court, among them the Apollo Belvedere (excavated in perfect condition in 1489) and the world-famous Laocoön group (excavated in 1506).^[3] Artists saw a harmony, symmetry and physical perfection in these sculptures that they strove to emulate in their own works. They eagerly copied classical statues and fragments of them, often after the original but sometimes also from drawings or prints by other masters.

The Rotterdam drawing resembles the work of Marcantonio Raimondi (1480-before 1534). The copies that he drew after antique sculptures, including a double-sided sheet in Florence and a study in New York, reflect the antiquarian taste that was all the rage at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The copies also show that artists went to great lengths to study the sculptures and fragments in minute detail.^[4] The clean contour lines and almost graphic lattice that Marcantonio created with his hatchings seem to have been imitated in the Rotterdam drawing, but in a less precise manner. This can also be seen in the rapid diagonal hatching around the figure, intended to indicate the rest of the cloak.

There is a drawing of four putti on the back of the sheet: two are relaxing in a mountainous landscape, the third is hovering in the air with a cornucopia (horn of plenty), while the fourth is seated on the ground with an object on its lap (an arm perhaps?). Loosely drawn beside the cornucopia in the sky are the outlines of two seated figures, possibly gods. The handling of line in this study is also closely related to the work of Marcantonio, but is less assured than the sleeping putto in New York.^[5]