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Who is the Apollo Sauroktonos the Lizard Slayer
Is Apollo depicted? Was it created by Praxiteles?
2016-01-22
Jennifer Neils, Professor of Classical Art and Archeology, poses two key questions concerning the bronze statue "Apollo the Lizard Slayer", which has been attributed to Praxiteles (4th century BC), one of the most important sculptors of antiquity. of Case-Western University in Cleveland, USA: Is Apollo Really Depicted? Was it really created by Praxiteles?
Ms. Neils challenged both in her lecture entitled “Laser Killer. Apollo; Praxiteles;" ("Sauroktonos: Apollo? Praxiteles?"), which he gave on Thursday, January 21, 2016 at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.
“I doubt that anyone who saw the statue in ancient Greece would recognize the god Apollo in the place of the young boy playing with or killing a small reptile. I believe it dates back to the Hellenistic or Roman period. Its high lead content indicates that it does not belong to the classical period. Also, the boy's posture and headdress are very "advanced" for the middle of the 4th century. BC, a date that is usually attributed to this type which has been reproduced in almost 80 Roman copies", says Ms. Neils to APE-MBE.
Since the time of the German archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1760), the marble statue in the Borghese collection of a young man resting on a tree with a lizard has been associated with an authentic bronze statue of Praxiteles, described by the Roman historian Pliny senior. Additionally, an epigram by the Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martial describes an anonymous bronze statue of a youth killing a lizard, but without mentioning the god.
"Winckelmann was the first to recognize that a Roman marble sculpture in Rome matched Pliny's description – who had said that the original statue was bronze – and since then everyone has accepted his attribution to Praxiteles, as well as the recognition in that of Apollo Sauroktonos. The Roman poet Martialis wrote an epigram on the Lizard Slayer, without mentioning either Apollo or Praxiteles. In 2004, the Cleveland Museum of Art acquired a bronze statue of unknown origin, believing it to be the original of Praxiteles", informs APE-MPE regarding the "history" of the statue. At the same time, he also provides information on why there were so many Roman copies of this type: "The Romans seem to have produced these statues of 'sensual boys' to decorate the gardens of their mansions, with the lizard being an allegory for male element, especially the young boys of pedantic Roman poetry," emphasizes Ms. Neils. And he adds: "What I believe is that the statue became popular in the Roman period and someone misinterpreted it as depicting Apollo."
History of origin
As for the origin of the ancient work, there are many rumors. "One of them says it came from Turkey, but the Cleveland Museum of Art insists it was in the garden of an old German estate, which is unlikely because it would have been seen before 2000. It has no signs of marine deposits, so it probably didn't come from the sea", he notes.
The statue now resides at the Cleveland Museum of Art, following its purchase in 2004 for $5 million from an affiliate of the Phoenix Gallery of Ancient Art in Geneva, a purchase that raised many questions about the legitimacy of its provenance. As has been written mainly in the foreign press, the main concern concerns the absence of evidence that would eliminate any suspicion that it may come from illegal procedures.
According to the American museum, an elderly German claimed to have found the sculpture in pieces inside a building that belonged to his family's estate after German reunification (the estate was near Dresden and had been confiscated by the then East German government) and that he remembered it on the same property in the 1930s, however, with no photographs to prove it. Also, according to the museum, he sold it to a Dutch art dealer in 1994, whose name he did not remember, who in turn sold it to at least one other unnamed collector, before it ended up in the gallery.
The Museum on its website ...
https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/praxiteles-cleveland-apollo
https://sites.google.com/view/my-ancient-knidos-videos/1-english-praxiteles-the-cleveland-apollo
states that this is an authentic ancient bronze statue of Apollo Pythoktodon, apparently adopting the conjecture that the reptile depicted is not a lizard but the Python, the monster of Greek mythology that the god killed at Delphi. He mentions as the date of its creation approximately the middle of the 4th century. BC, as well as being attributed to Praxiteles, adding that it is the only surviving bronze version of this famous type of sculpture, described by Pliny in the 1st century. The statue was the central exhibit in an exhibition held at the American Museum in 2013-14.
According to information, the project has occupied Greece. In fact, our country had objected to the participation of the statue in the exhibition held at the Louvre in 2007 and which was dedicated to Praxiteles, due to his "grey" origin. Ultimately the project was not included in the exhibition.
Praxiteles, son of the Athenian sculptor Kifisodotos, lived between 390 and 320 BC. He created works of deities, as well as statues of mortals, in bronze, but also in marble, which he had a particular preference for. Hermes Dionysophoros (circa 330 BC), which is exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, as well as the colossal head of a statue of Artemis Bravronia, which is exhibited in the Acropolis Museum, are considered to be his authentic works. Among his most famous works was the Cnidia Aphrodite, the first nude representation of the goddess, but also of the female body in life size, with the most likely model being the well-known courtesan of antiquity, Phrynis. Copies of the statue exist in many museums, including the National Archaeological Museum.
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