An Italian life-size patinated-bronze figure of an athlete

The now lost original life-size bronze statue of the Apoxyomenos, by Lysippos, celebrated sculptor of the Hellenistic period, was taken to Rome, where it stood in front of the Baths of Agrippa during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. The work is now known from a single complete Roman marble replica, discovered in 1849 and now in the Vatican. The attribution to Lysippos rests primarily on the pose, which, despite the fact that the blade of the strigil is restored, fits Pliny's description of an athlete 'destringens se', and on the elongated body and small body - proportions in keeping with ancient accounts of Lysippos's work.