Apollo Belvedere

Apollo Belvedere
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Artist	After Leochares
Year	c. AD 120–140
Type	White marble
Dimensions	224 cm (88 in)
Location	Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Coordinates	41°54′23″N 12°27′16″E / 41.906389°N 12.454444°E / 41.906389; 12.454444

The Apollo Belvedere (also called the Belvedere Apollo, Apollo of the Belvedere, or Pythian Apollo)^[1] is a celebrated marble sculpture from classical antiquity.

The work has been dated to mid-way through the 2nd century A.D. and is considered to be a Roman copy of an original bronze statue created between 330 and 320 B.C. by the Greek sculptor Leochares.^[2] It was rediscovered in central Italy in the late 15th century during the Italian Renaissance and was placed on semi-public display in the Vatican Palace in 1511, where it remains. It is now in the Cortile del Belvedere of the Pio-Clementine Museum of the Vatican Museums complex.

From the mid-18th century it was considered the greatest ancient sculpture by ardent neoclassicists, and for centuries it epitomized the ideals of aesthetic perfection for Europeans and westernized parts of the world.