Collection Online as of February 5, 2023
c. 350 BC
Part of a set. See all set records
(Greek, c. 400BC-c. 330BC)
Bronze, copper, and stone inlay
Base: 0.5 x 47.3 x 40.7 cm (3/16 x 18 5/8 x 16 in.); Overall: 150 x 50.3 x 66.8 cm (59 1/16 x 19 13/16 x 26 5/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2004.30
Description This bronze sculpture of Apollo formerly known as "Sauroktonos," or lizard-slayer, is attributed to the renowned Greek sculptor Praxiteles. The survival of an original bronze sculpture attributed to a known artist in ancient Greece is extraordinarily rare. This sculptor is otherwise known only from Roman marble copies of his works.
Praxiteles c. 400/390-330/325 BC
Provenance Ernst-Ulrich Walter, Germany
2004
[Phoenix Ancient Art, 2004]
2004-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
"Original, copie, représentation antique? Quleques considérations sur les images d'Apollo Sauroktonos," in eds. Colloque international sur les bronzes antiques, Crişan Muçeţeanu, Lucia Teposu Marinescu, Christina Ştirbulescu, and Valentin Bottez, The Antique bronzes typology, chronology, authenticity : the acta of the 16the International Congress of Antique Bronzes organised by the Romanian National History Museum, Bucharest, May 26th-31st 2003 (Bucharest: Cetatea de Scaun, 2004), pp. 301-304.
"Acquisitions of the year," Apollo: The International Magazine of Art and Antiques. (December 2004). p. 51 (ill.).
Brand, Arthur. Het verboden Judas-evangelie en de schat van Carchemish. Soesterberg: Aspekt, 2006. p. 140, fig. 6
Praxitèle . Paris: Société française de promotion artistique, 2007. p. 207, fig. 126a
Laugier, Ludovic. "Praxitèle et la Polychromie," Dossier de l'Art, no. 139 (March 2007) p. 56
Harris, Lucian. "Louvre will not show Cleveland Apollo." The Art Newspaper vol. XVI no. 178 (March 2007)
Flescher, Sharon, "Cleveland Museum Returns 14 Works To Italy," IFAR Journal vol. 11 (9), 2009 p. 7, fig. 3
Barbillon, Claire, and Sophie Mouquin. Écrire la sculpture: de l'antiquité à Louise Bourgeois : une anthologie. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011. p. 37
Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 38-9
Olszewski, Edward J. "Praxiteles' Apollo and Pliny's "Lizard Slayer."" Source: Notes in the History of Art 31:2 (Winter 2012) p.4, fig. 1A
Bennett, Michael J. 2013. Praxiteles: The Cleveland Apollo. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Brinkmann, Vinzenz. Zurück zur Klassik: ein neuer Blick auf das Alte Griechenland : eine Ausstellung der Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, 8. Februar bis 26. Mai 2013. München: Hirmer, 2013. Abb. 230, p. 222 ; Abb. 234, p. 224 ; Abb. 242, p. 226 ; Abb. 243, p. 227 ; Abb. 247, p. 229 ; p. 214
Gill, David. Context Matters 'The Cleveland Apollo Goes Public' The Journal of Art Crime 10 (Fall 2013): 71-75. Mentioned: p. 71-75
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
Snyder, Colleen, Ernst Pernicka, and Peter Northover. "The Cleveland Apollo: Recent Research and Revelations." In
Colloque International Sur les Bronzes Antiques. Artistry in Bronze: The Greeks and Their Legacy: XIX International Congress on Ancient Bronzes , Jens Daehner, Kenneth D. S. Lapatin, and Ambra Spinelli, eds., 329-340. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute, 2017. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 329-340
www.getty.edu
Daehner, Jens and Kenneth D. S. Lapatin. Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World. Firenze : Giunti, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 24-26, fig. 1.6;
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)
Todisco, Luigi. Prassitele di Atene: scultore e bronzista del IV secolo. Roma: Giorgio Bretschneider editore, 2017. TAV. XII Reoroduced: TAV. XII
Angelicoussis, Elizabeth, Daniella Ben-Arie, and Andrew F Stewart. 2017. Reconstructing the Lansdowne Collection of Classical Marbles. Edited by Gerard M.-F Hill. Munich: Hirmer. Pp. 113-117, Fig. 13.10.
Neils, Jennifer. “Praxiteles to Caravaggio: The Apollo Sauroktonos Redefined.” Art Bulletin 99, no. 4 (December 2017): 10-30. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 13-14, fig. 7; P. 18, fig. 13
Childs, William A. P. Greek Art and Aesthetics in the Fourth Century B.C . Princeton, NJ: Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, in association with Princeton University Press, 2018. Mentioned: p. 195; Reproduced: p. [439] pl. # 182
Stewart, Peter. "Ancient Greek Artists and Texts: Loss and Re-Creation," 47-58. Catherine M. Draycott, Rubina Raja, Katherine E. Welch, and William T. Wootton. Visual Histories of the Classical World: Essays in Honour of R.R.R. Smith . Turnhout : Brepols, 2019. Reproduced: p. 51, fig. 4.2' Mentioned: p. 52
Isacker, Philip van, and Helen Simpson. De Sculptura: Reflections on Sculpture. Ghent : Mer. B&L, imprint of Borgerhoff & Lamberigts, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 207, fig. 168
Pevnick, Seth and Colleen Snyder. "Shedding New Light on an Ancient Bronze Figure: Ongoing Research on the Cleveland Apollo"
CMA Thinker on Medium (June 16 2022).
medium.com