Leochares' "Apollo Belvedere"

Nationality: Greek (original bronze)
Born/Died: 4th century BC
Creation Date: c. 350-325 BC
Size: 88 in. (224 cm)
Media: Marble
Location: The Vatican Museums, Vatican City, Italy

This is a photo I took of this sculpture in Italy and below is a superior image of the same sculpture. It should be noted that Leochares did not sculpt this piece of marble--it is a Roman copy made after a Greek bronze.

I think this sculpture is absolutely fantastic, but unlike many artists from previous centuries I do not worship it. While I admit that I am not privy to all the academic study about the proportions of this piece, I am not a believer in "magic-bullet" mathematical proportion studies that equate beautiful art--theories which are the basis for the aforementioned worship. I will articulate my reasons at some future date but to sum it up I will say this: to appreciate this sculpture because of the mathematics of it's dimensions would be like laughing at a joke because of the number of vowels it contains--certainly missing the point!