The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Detached Creature from the Cleveland Apollo: Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) or Apollo the Python-Slayer

Detached Creature from the Cleveland Apollo: Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) or Apollo the Python-Slayer

c. 350–200 BCE

attributed to Praxiteles

(Greek, Athenian, c. 400–330 BCE)
Greece, Athens
bronze, copper and stone inlay
Overall: 14.8 x 9.4 x 3.6 cm (5 13/16 x 3 11/16 x 1 7/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2004.30.c
Location: 100 1916 Lobby

Did You Know?

Despite its small size, the creature was cast in two solid parts.

Description

Both snakelike and lizardlike in appearance, the creature has a scaly head and four small feet. These are attached asymmetrically to its long and sinuous body, some with carefully delineated toes, others less detailed. The smallest foot falls behind a line bisecting the creature, where radiography shows a pin joining two separately cast sections. Although the bronze of the front and back halves is quite similar, the front half shows greater porosity (air bubbles). Perhaps the original back half was damaged during casting, necessitating a new or re-casting of that portion of the creature, with a smaller, relocated fourth leg.
  • Ernst-Ulrich Walter, Germany
    2004
    [Phoenix Ancient Art, 2004]
    2004-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 83
    Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, and Stephen Ongpin. Renaissance to Futurism: A Selection of Italian Drawings, 1500-1920. 2015, 6. Mentioned in notes section, No. 2, Note 1 (unpagenated)
    Neils, Jennifer. “Praxiteles to Caravaggio: The Apollo Sauroktonos Redefined.” Art Bulletin 99, no. 4 (December 2017): 10-30. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 15, fig. 8
  • Praxiteles: The Cleveland Apollo. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 29, 2013-January 5, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Detached Creature from the Cleveland Apollo: Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) or Apollo the Python-Slayer|url=false|author=Praxiteles, Follower|year=c. 350–200 BCE|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2004.30.c