A ROMAN BRONZE APOLLO

CIRCA 50 B.C.-50 A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE APOLLO
CIRCA 50 B.C.-50 A.D.
Classicizing in style, the form of the body inspired by the Polykleitan school of the 5th century B.C., the god depicted standing on his right leg, his left relaxed and bent at the knee, the heel lifted, his left shoulder slightly pulled back, the arm lowered, perhaps once holding his bow or lyre, his right arm bent and extended forward holding his plectrum, his quiver at his right shoulder with a knobbed cover and crosshatched shaft, his head angled downward, his hair rolled back and tied in a chignon, the individual locks delineated, long wavy tresses falling onto his shoulders, the eyes deeply recessed for now-missing inlays
4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm.) high

Provenance

T. Fujita, Tokyo.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1990.

Literature

C.C. Vermeule and J.M. Eisenberg, Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes in the Collection of John Kluge, New York and Boston, 1992, no. 90-18.

Lot Essay

The body type is related to a Classical bronze of an athlete from Locri or Tarentum, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 12, p. 95ff. in Kozloff and Mitten, The Gods Delight, The Human Figure in Classical Bronze.
The appearance of the god's diverse attributes, a plectrum and a quiver on a single figure, is noteworthy. As Vermeule and Eisenberg inform (op. cit.), "Emphasis on the musical as well as the aggressive aspect of Apollo make this small figure a manifestation of all aspects of the god."

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