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Submitted: November 20, 2008
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Belvedere Torso Reconstructed4by ~tecciztecatl

Traditional Art / Sculpture / Figurative

This is my 3rd year college project - I'll be carving this in stone. I've been studying the Belvedere Torso to try and figure out what he might have been doing before all his limbs and his head were broken off. I suspect it was actually Hercules as the Renaissance Italians originally thought, but the above figure is Ajax.

The myth goes that at the siege of Troy Ajax and Odysseus fought to save the body of Achilles from the Trojans; afterwards they both claimed his armour and fell out over it. Ajax was going to kill Odysseus for the armour but Athena sent Ajax insane so he killed a flock of sheep thinking they were the Greek leaders. When he came to his senses he was so ashamed that he felt the only honourable action was to commit suicide.

There is an ancient bronze in a similar position to the Torso, now in the George Ortiz collection (google it if you're interested, there's a 360 degree rotation of the sculpture available), of Ajax seated and contemplating his death - my figure is based on this.

I had to go for Ajax because I'm fairly sure that the Torso originally had one arm up in the air and even though the limestone I'll be carving this out of is very hard, it doesn't have the tensile strength of marble and the arm would snap off. This way all the limbs are adequately supported.

I've borrowed heavily from Michelangelo (for the missing shoulders and upper arms) and from several ancient Greek works for other parts - the lower legs and feet came from the Laocoon and the Farnese Hercules. The lower arms and hands are exaggerated versions of my own. I'm kind of apprehensive about it cause I know my work is nowhere near the standard of the actual Torso, and even Michelangelo, in my opinion the greatest sculptor ever to have lived, refused to restore it himself. Apparently he would have considered it sacrilegious...

I have till the end of June next year to cast and carve the figure which is almost 3 feet high. I don't think it's enough time but I'm going to work like a maniac and hope for the best.

PS. I haven't put any detail on his hair or beard cause I'm modelling it up separately in wax.

Also fiddled amateurishly with brightness & contrast in ps

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Given 2008-11-24

Belvedere Torso Reconstructed2 by ~tecciztecatl is very Rodinesque in its design, the thought provoking pose coupled with an amazing eye for detail and wonderful muscular accuracy draws a similar likeness to other great sculpts such as the thinker and Michelangelo’s David. If this weren't enough :devtecciztecatl:'s gallery contains many other precision and wonderful sculpts. ( Featured by !Thebuild )

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~rami77lb May 4, 2013

u'r a great sculptor

*beachelf Dec 18, 2012

Bravo!

~Jannatized Feb 18, 2010

This is AMAZING!!! How long did it take you overall?

~tecciztecatl Feb 27, 2010

Thanks again! I think the modelling took about a month but there was several months research before that. Then it took another 5 months to carve it in stone for my end of year show (see Ajax in my gallery for the stone version).