Lycian Apollo

The Lycian Apollo type, originating with Praxiteles and known from many statue and figurine copies as well as from 1st century BCE coinage, is a statue type of Apollo showing the god resting on a support (a tree trunk or tripod), his right arm touching the top of his head [A pose also used in the Amazon statue types and, in the second century CE, in the Ludovisi Dionysus, a Roman sculpture.] , and his hair fixed in braids on the top of a head in a haircut typical of childhood. It is called Lycian not after Lycia itself, but after its identification with a lost work described by Lucian ["Anacharsis" (7).] as being on show in the "Lykeion", one of the gymnasia of Athens. Its main exemplar is the "Apollino" in Florence or "Apollo Medici", in the Uffizi, Florence. [de icon Wilhelm Klein, "Praxiteles", Lepizig, 1898, p. 158.]

Another literary source does not attribute this type to Praxiteles, but the attribution is traditionally supported on the grounds of the type's similarity to Praxiteles's "Hermes" from Olympia - one replica of the "Lycian Apollo" even passed as a copy of the "Hermes" for a time [fr icon Martinez, « Les styles praxitélisants », p. 334.] . The comparison essentially rests on the "Apollino", whose head has proportions similar to those of the Aphrodite of Cnidus [As represented by [http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=20300 Head Ma421] in the Louvre. it icon Giulio Emmanuele Rizzo, Prassitele, Milan et Rome, 1932, p. 80-81.] and whose pronounced "sfumato" confirms the long-held idea that it is Praxitelean in style.

Nevertheless, most exemplars of this type exhibit a pronounced musculature which does not resemble masculine types normally attributed to Praxiteles - it has further been proposed that it is a work of his contemporary Euphranor [de icon S. F. Schröder, « Der Apollon Lykeios und die attische Ephebie des 4. Jhr » in "Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung", 101 (1986), p. 167-184.] , or of a 2nd century BCE work [de icon M. Nagele, « Zum Typus des Apollon Lykeios » in "Jahreshefte des Österreichischen archäologischen Instituts in Wien", 55 (1984), p. 77-105.] The "Apollino", for its part, would thus be an eclectic creation from the Roman era, mixing several styles from the "second classicism" (ie from the 4th century BC). [fr icon Martinez, « Les styles praxitélisants », p. 335.] .

References