The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (48 page)

Belvedere Torso
.

A marble torso of a poweful male figure seated on a rock, now in the Vatican Museums and named after the Belvedere Court in the Vatican in which it was once displayed. It is signed by a Greek sculptor ‘Apollonius, son of Nestor, Athenian’, about whom nothing is known, and there is scholarly dispute as to whether it is an original
Hellenistic
work or a Roman copy. (It is sometimes alleged that the signature of Apollonius occurs also on the famous and stylistically similar bronze figure of a seated boxer in the Terme Museum in Rome, but most authorities now consider that this is a mirage.) The date of the discovery of the torso is uncertain, but it is first mentioned in the 1430s. It had become well known by 1500 and had a profound influence on
Michelangelo
among other
Renaissance
artists. From then until the early 19th cent. it was widely regarded as one of the greatest works of art in the world, rivalled in status probably only by the
Apollo Belvedere
and the
Laocoön
among ancient sculptures, although its fame was generally more academic than popular. It was often referred to simply as ‘the Torso’. Unusually, the figure has always been left unrestored, but various artists have attempted to reconstruct the statue, notably
Flaxman
, who made of it a group as
Hercules and Hebe
(University College, London, on loan to V&A, 1792). Between 1798 and 1815 the
Belvedere Torso
was in Paris, one of the many antique statues taken there by Napoleon .

 
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(1442–97).
Florentine sculptor, who carried over into the second half of the 15th cent. many of the motifs and stylistic features characteristic of the first half. His marble tomb designs are variants on patterns established by his master, Antonio
Rossellino
; his pictorial *relief style, which found its most eloquent expression in a pulpit executed between 1472 and 1475 in Sta Croce, Florence, belongs to the narrative tradition associated with
Ghiberti
and
Donatello
. Perhaps his most memorable achievement lay not in his figures or reliefs but in the decorative architectural settings in which they were placed. In the design and execution of the exquisite pilasters, capitals, friezes, niches, and so on which form these settings he was often assisted by his brothers
Giovanni
(1438–78) and
Giuliano
(1432–90), who was primarily an architect. Benedetto's other work includes two outstanding portrait busts—of Pietro Mellini (Bargello, Florence, 1474) and of Filippo Strozzi (Louvre, Paris,
c.
1490).

 
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Bening
(or Benig)
.

The name of two Netherlandish book
illuminators
, father and son.
Sanders
(sometimes called Alexander) (d. 1519) worked in Ghent and Bruges. No documented works by him are known, but attempts have been made to identify him with the
Master of Mary of Burgundy
, which would give him an artistic status appropriate to the success he seems to have enjoyed.
Simon
(1483/4–1561) worked in Bruges and represents one of the final sparks of the tradition of illumination as the manuscript was overtaken by the printed book. There is a self-portrait
miniature
by Simon in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. His daughter,
Levina Teerlinc
(d. 1576), was also a miniaturist. She settled in London in 1546 and worked at the English court.

 
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(1870–1960).
Russian painter, stage designer, art historian, and critic, a leader and spokesman of the
World of Art group
. He was a close friend and collaborator of
Diaghilev
, both in Russia and later in Paris, and he is best known for his stage designs for the
Ballets Russes
, in which he harmonized the tradition of Russian folk art with French
Rococo
elements, one of the most notable examples being Stravinsky's
Petrushka
(1911). Following a difference of opinion with Diaghilev he worked at Stanislavsky's Moscow Arts Theatre, 1912–14. After the Revolution he was appointed curator of paintings at the
Hermitage
in Leningrad. He held this post from 1918 to 1925, then settled permanently in Paris. His writings include several volumes of memoirs and books on art, including ones translated into English as
The Russian School of Painting
(1916),
Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet
(1941), and
Memoirs
(1960). Benois's son,
Nikolai
(1901– ), was a stage designer at La Scala, Milan; his niece,
Nadia Benois
(1896–1975), settled in London in 1920 and worked as a ballet designer. The actor and writer Peter Ustinov is her son.

 
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(d. 1550).
Netherlandish painter of religious works and portraits. He was born in Italy, but from 1519 worked in Bruges, where he continued the tradition of Gerard
David
. Many of his pictures were done for the export trade to Italy and Spain, and he evidently had a flourishing business. There is a slightly southern flavour to his compositions and for a long time many of them were thought to be by an anonymous Spanish painter known as the Master of Segovia.

 
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