Il torso del Belvedere. Da Aiace a Rodin

207 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 30 cm. in Italian. Catalogue of an exhibition held at Glyptothek München, 20 January-5 April, 1998, and Musei Vaticani, 19 November 1998-31 January 1999. 'Elegant Italian language catalogue dedicated to the sculpture known as the Torso del Belvedere, conserved at the Pius-Clementine Museum in the Vatican Museums. After an introduction to the events on the acquisition, the volume focuses on the importance of this fragmented work: a masterpiece that makes of its incompleteness its uniqueness, which accentuates its charm and mystery, as if its beauty is certain and evident, its meaning is left to the imagination and intuition of its observers. Starting with the description of the history and symbolism, it is then stressed the influence that the image of the Torso had for artists, from the Renaissance, Michelangelo first among them, up to the contemporary age. Using a vast photographic apparatus, the catalogue exposes the numerous artistic reconstructions and the archaeological interpretations carried out over the centuries, emphasizing the complexity and the drama of the opera. By attempting a series of integrations it finally reaches the interpretation, assisted by a plaster cast made in the Glyptothek in Munich, which identifies in the figure Aias, the Greek hero, who meditates on the suicide. There follows a series of comparisons with melancholic heroes and "thoughtful" figures, including The Thinker of Auguste Rodin. The volume closes with technical charts of a representative series of numerous representations of the torso.…