Collection Online as of August 15, 2020

Apollo the Python-Slayer

c. 350 BC

Part of a set. See all set records

attributed to Praxiteles

(Greek, c. 400BC-c. 330BC)

Greece, Athens, mid-fourth century

Bronze, copper and stone inlay

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

Location

100 1916 Lobby

Fun Fact

Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, is depicted as an adolescent rather than a mature god.

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

Barbillon, Claire, and Sophie Mouquin. Écrire la sculpture: de l'antiquité à Louise Bourgeois : une anthologie. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011. p. 37

Brand, Arthur. Het verboden Judas-evangelie en de schat van Carchemish. Soesterberg: Aspekt, 2006. p. 140, fig. 6

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

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

Bennett, Michael J., and Praxiteles. Praxiteles: The Cleveland Apollo. 2013.

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

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

Apollo: The International Magazine of Art and Antiques. (December 2004). p. 51

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

Gill, David. Context Matters 'The Cleveland Apollo Goes Public' The Journal of Art Crime 10 (Fall 2013): 71-75. Mentioned: p. 71-75

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;

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

Todisco, Luigi. Prassitele di Atene: scultore e bronzista del IV secolo. Roma: Giorgio Bretschneider editore, 2017. TAV. XII Reoroduced: TAV. XII

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