Cleveland Museum of Art

Detached Creature from the Cleveland Apollo: Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) or Apollo the Python-Slayer

Praxiteles

Date

c. 350–200 BCE

Medium

bronze, copper and stone inlay

Culture

Greece, Athens

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Both snakelike and lizardlike in appearance, the creature has a scaly head and four small feet. These are attached asymmetrically to its long and sinuous body, some with carefully delineated toes, others less detailed. The smallest foot falls behind a line bisecting the creature, where radiography shows a pin joining two separately cast sections. Although the bronze of the front and back halves is quite similar, the front half shows greater porosity (air bubbles). Perhaps the original back half was damaged during casting, necessitating a new or re-casting of that portion of the creature, with a smaller, relocated fourth leg. Despite its small size, the creature was cast in two solid parts.

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