CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

This impressive figure of Apollo is an eclectic interpretation of the “Apollo of Mantua” type, named for a lifesized marble statue now located in the city’s Palazzo Ducale. According to A. Furtwängler, the type is based on a now-lost Greek bronze attributed to Hegias, the teacher of Phidias (see pp. 49-53 in Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture). There are at least twelve known Roman copies of the "Apollo of Mantua,” many of which once held the god's signature attributes, either a kithara or lyre and a plectrum, and it is likely ours followed this model (see nos. 200-200l in W. Lambrinudakis, et al., “Apollon,” LIMC, vol. II).

Here, Apollo shares the same contrapposto stance and luxuriant wavy locks observed in the Mantua type. However, while the other examples depict the god with his hair brushed down and rolled around a fillet with two distinct curls falling behind each ear and onto his shoulders, the treatment of the hair here is looser, parted in the center and bound by a diadem tied above the nape of his neck, with at least six locks falling across his shoulders. The facial features here are more naturalistic in comparison to the more archaizing stiffness of the Greek original. Therefore, one should view the present Apollo through a varied lens: freely borrowing from the visual language of the “Apollo of Mantua” yet combining anachronistic elements that defy simple classification and place this figure in a category of its own.