Apollo the Python-Slayer

c. 350 BC

Apollo the Python-Slayer, c. 350 BC. Attributed to Praxiteles (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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2004.30 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. Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, is depicted as an adolescent rather than a mature god.