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Detached Creature from the Cleveland Apollo: Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) or Apollo the Python-Slayer
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineDetached Creature from the Cleveland Apollo: Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) or Apollo the Python-Slayer, c. 350–200 BCE. Attributed to Praxiteles (Greek, Athenian, c. 400–330 BCE), or Follower. Bronze, copper and stone inlay; overall: 14.8 x 9.4 x 3.6 cm (5 13/16 x 3 11/16 x 1 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 2004.30.c