|
|
Collections | |
|
|
New Acquisition |
|
Apollo Sauroktonos
>
News Release
|
|
News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Donna Brock, (216) 707-2260. dbrock@clevelandart.org Get the Media Kit Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Rare Monumental Ancient Bronze Sculpture of Apollo Sauroktonos CLEVELAND, OH (June 22, 2004) Katharine Lee Reid, Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), announced today the acquisition of a rare, life-size ancient bronze sculpture of Apollo Sauroktonos, introduced by the ancient Greek sculptor, Praxiteles (active about 380/70-330/25 B.C.). The dating and attribution of the sculpture will continue to be studied. The work has been described by David G. Mitten, the George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient and Byzantine Art, Harvard University Art Museums, one of the several scholars consulted prior to the acquisition, as “…by far the most important work of Classical sculpture to come to light and be acquired by a North American art museum since World War II.” Michael Bennett, the Museum's curator of Greek and Roman Art adds, “This magnificent sculpture has several stylistic and technical features that we associate with monumental Classical Greek bronzes, and ancient testimony attributing to Praxiteles an Apollo Sauroktonos in bronze greatly adds to the work's importance.” The Museum is placing the work on public view, publishing a monograph to appear in 2006 and convening an international symposium scheduled for April 2006 with published proceedings to follow. Two known life-size Roman marble copies of the Apollo Sauroktonos exist in substantially complete condition: one at the Louvre and the other at the Vatican. This is the only known life-size bronze of Apollo Sauroktonos. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder saw what he considered to be an original in the 1st century A.D. (Natural History, book 34.69ff.) and said, “Although Praxiteles was more successful, and therefore more famous for his marble sculptures, he nevertheless also created very beautiful works in bronze…He made a youthful Apollo called the Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer), waiting in ambush for a creeping lizard, close at hand, with an arrow.” If the Cleveland Museum of Art's Apollo Sauroktonos proves to be a Greek work of the Classical period, it would be the only known monumental Greek bronze sculpture that can be securely attributed to any Greek master sculptor through literary sources. Along with Phidias, Polyclitus, and Lysippus, Praxiteles of Athens was one of the most influential Greek artists of the Classical period. Very few life-size bronze sculptures from antiquity have survived because they could be melted down for a variety of purposes. This sculpture, which is largely intact after recent restoration and conservation treatment, is now on public view. Measuring 150cm tall, the sculpture most likely once showed the young god pulling back a laurel sapling with his raised left hand while holding an arrow, aimed at a lizard, in his right hand at waist level. The statue is missing the tree, the right arm from above the elbow, and the left arm from the shoulder. The left hand and part of the forearm exist, detached from the figure, as does the lizard. Expert examination and testing of the bronze over the past year have identified several stylistic and technical characteristics consistent with Greek monumental sculpture of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. and techniques that continued into the Roman period. In particular, the bronze was cast in several sections, which were then joined together. Other significant features such as the copper inlays of the lips and nipples and the stone insert of the right eye, the thick, massive casting and the type of patches used for repairs, the corrosion on the surface and the overall condition of the work, are also what one might expect to see in a Classical Greek bronze. Reid comments, “This acquisition is enormously important. It will benefit the public with new insight about ancient art and our shared cultural heritage. The work itself is a dramatic addition to the Cleveland Museum of Art's select collection of ancient art, particularly to our fine holdings of Greek and Roman bronzes. It is of great scholarly and educational significance, giving us a chance to understand, with experts in the field from here and abroad, a work that has never before been examined closely by numerous experts in ancient Greek and Roman art, conservation, and archaeology. The opportunity to acquire such a rare work and exhibit it is in keeping with our mission to further the research and understanding of art, and to be a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and art acquisitions.” Over the last year the Cleveland Museum of Art has engaged in examination of the bronze with leading art historians and conservators prior to its acquisition. In addition to David Mitten, these include: Carol C. Mattusch, the Mathy Professor of Art History at George Mason University; Caroline M. Houser, Professor of Art History at Smith College; Hellenistic and Roman sculpture expert Ariel Herrmann; Henry Lie, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard University; and Peter Northover, Department of Materials, Oxford University. Preliminary scientific tests on the statue and base show that the sculpture was excavated well before 1900. The base of the sculpture dates from the 17th-19th century. Additional tests are ongoing. The work cannot be conclusively linked to any one particular site in the Greco-Roman world. There may have been a series of monumental bronze versions of the Apollo Sauroktonos made during the Greek Classical period, and perhaps later. The statue had been a part of a private estate in the eastern part of Germany, later to become communist East Germany (GDR), well before World War II. The work was installed in the garden and considered to be late 18th or 19th century. After German reunification in 1990, Ernst-Ulrich Walter reclaimed his family's estate and rediscovered the sculpture in pieces. In 1994, Dr. Lucia Marinescu, former Director of the National History Museum of Romania first viewed the work in fragments while touring the estate. In 1994 the sculpture was sold and subsequently reassembled and restored. In May 2003, Dr. Marinescu presented a paper on the sculpture at the 16th International Congress of Antique Bronzes. The work was acquired from the Geneva gallery of Phoenix Ancient Art S.A. About The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art's collection of Greek and Roman antiquities is extraordinary for its high quality. The collection was developed under the expert care of several directors and curators who sought out and acquired works of great aesthetic appeal and art historical importance. The collection is especially recognized for its fine group of Greek and Roman bronzes. The Cleveland Museum of Art receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council. The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of America's leading comprehensive museums. Its permanent collection is world renowned for its quality and breadth, spanning 6,000 years. The Museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship and art acquisitions. For more information on the Museum, its holdings, programs, services and events, call 1-888-CMA-0033 or visit www.ClevelandArt.org. # # # Page 2 of 5 | On the next page: Praxiteles |
|||||||
