Statue of Apollo Sauroktonos

Statue of Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-killer). The head and the body are from separate statues, and the head could be a female head or from a statue of Eros. The statue is probably a Roman copy of a bronze by Praxiteles, the original dating to c.350 BC, although never been found and only known in a mention by Pliny the Elder. There are different versions of the same topic from the Borghese villa, now in the Louvre, the villa Albani and the Vatican museum. The Albani bronze version seem to have been used for the restoration of the Ince piece.The gestures of both hands and the open pose of the left arm are the same as the Albani version. Certain peculiarities on the head (the hairband rounded on the left and flat on the right, the disparity of the thick curls of the face with those less indicated on the crown, the tiny knobs of hair emerging from under the band and the plait of hair behind the right ear) indicate that the ancient head was of a different Apollo and was propably reworked to fit the Albani type. The Ince statue is different to the other versions in that the left foot turns out rather than being lined up behind the right.