_Vatican Gallery, Rome_]
The head of Apollo in our illustration is from a famous full-length
statue of the god known as the Apollo Belvedere. The name Belvedere,
which is useful only to distinguish the statue from others of the same
subject, comes from the fact that the marble once adorned a pavilion of
the Vatican called the Belvedere.
The god stands with left arm extended holding, it is supposed, either a
bow or a shield. A quiver of arrows is slung across his back, and a
chlamys, or cloak, hangs over his left shoulder. His is the proud
attitude of one who is defending some sacred trust. So he holds his head
high and gazes steadily before him as if watching an arrow speed to its
mark, or perhaps scanning the vanguard of an approaching army. The
expression is not a little haughty, and one detects an almost disdainful
curve of the lips as if the god regarded the enemy with scorn. The face
is cut in an aristocratic mould, with fine sensitive lines which mark
the lover of music and poetry. In fact, the refinement of his beauty has
something of a feminine quality.
The carefully curled hair is gathered in a bow knot on the top of his
head. It may indeed be supposed that the handsome young god was by no
means unconscious of his charms, and took no little pains to display
them to good advantage.
The Apollo, however, is a god worthy of our admiration for the noble
purity of his countenance. Surely, all base thoughts and mean motives
would be put to shame by this pure presence.
The poet Byron, whose "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" describes many
interesting sights in Greece and Italy, has written these lines about
the Apollo Belvedere:--
"The Lord of the unerring bow,
The god of life, and poesy, and light--
The sun, in human limbs array'd, and brow
All radiant from his triumph in the fight;
The shaft hath just been shot--the arrow bright
With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye
And nostril beautiful disdain, and might,
And majesty flash their full lightnings by,
Developing in that one glance the deity."