/internal/media/dispatcher/165394/fullBellerophon Fighting the Chimera1821[Johann Nepomuk Schaller]Johann Nepomuk SchallerMarbleWhile living in Rome, the sculptor Johann Nepomuk Schaller was commissioned by Prince Metternich to create “a life-size male statue of youthful age.” Choosing the mythological hero Bellerophon in combat with the Chimera—a hybrid beast part lion, goat, and serpent—Schaller captures the moment just before the beast’s final rearing and the hero’s decisive thrust with the sword. He deliberately conceived the sculpture to be viewed from multiple angles, thereby departing from the prevailing Roman tradition of orienting sculptures toward a single principal viewpoint. Perhaps meant as a commentary on the victory over Napoleon, the statue was exhibited from 1821 in one of the glasshouses of Vienna’s Burggarten before being transferred to the Upper Belvedere in 1847.Sculpturehttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/8358/rdf