Outside and Inside the Surface. A Statue of Apollo from Villa Corsini in Castello (Florence)

Abstract

This paper focuses on a marble statue representing the god Apollo as an archer, from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Florence (MAF), now exhibited at Villa Corsini in Castello (Florence). The larger-than-life-size statue has been considered a Roman pastiche: a head derived from a 4th century BCE (Before Common Era) prototype was joined to a body inspired by models from the beginning of the 5th century BCE. In this perspective, it would be important to define whether this pastiche is a Roman or a Modern work. Having no information about the provenance of this unique sculpture, this research sheds new light on its biography through the investigation of its materiality. Specifically, 3D Ultrasonic Tomography is employed to examine marble characteristics. The obtained velocity model shows interesting results, highlighting areas of obvious integrations and possible metal pins, to join parts of the statue. The analysis of these results leads to the idea that the statue was probably reassembled in modern times, in a way that is not entirely consistent with its original appearance.