Apollo of Mantua

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Apollo of Mantua, early form of the Apollo Citharoedus statue type. It is named after the first of the type discovered, and is represented by neo-Attic Imperial Roman copies of the late first or early second century, modelled upon a supposed Greek bronze original made in the second quarter of the fifth century BCE, in a style similar to works of Polyclitus but more archaic. The Apollo held the cythara against his extended left arm, of which in the Louvre example (illustration) a fragment of one twisting scrolling horn upright remains against his bicep.

More than a dozen other replicas of the type have been found, principally those conserved in the national museums of Naples and of Mantua.

The lost original would have been bronze. The name of the teacher of Phidias, Hegias of Athens is sometimes invoked, but there are no surviving examples of Hegias' work to judge from.

Examples include:

The Naples Apollo of Mantua, a bronze found at Pompeii, in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples (inv. 5630).

The Louvre Apollo of Mantua, formerly in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, entered the museum in 1871.

The Fogg Art Museum Apollo of Mantua, a Roman bronze.