Head and Chest of Apollo

19th-early 20th century · Sculpture

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Head and Chest of Apollo” now? Collection: Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

Harvard Art Museums

Cambridge, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 13 days ago
In this state since: Sep 27, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the sculpture

A youthful Apollo turns his head to his left, eyes somewhat downcast. He wears his hair long and rolled up around his head. An irregular depression above this roll is intended to hold a fillet. The two long, curly locks that fall to each bare shoulder were added in wax to the wax model for the head. The facial features are blurred except for the sharp nose. The pitted surface shows this to be a porous casting, with a variety of unrepaired flaws. Abrasions of the corroded surface show bright base metal, which is in good condition. The irregular and apparently broken lower edge is a cast edge, and what might appear to be breaks in the long locks are in fact casting flaws.

Read on

The head and torso are part of a single casting, a method of production that would have been unusual in antiquity; even a small-scale work like this would more likely have had the head cast separately. It is likely that the casting was deliberately flawed or left incomplete as part of the production process, suggesting that it was produced in modern times with the intention that it should appear to be ancient.

This figure is one of at least 14 examples of a popular Roman statue-type in the Early Classical style named after an example in Mantua (Mantua, Palazzo Ducale). It may well be a reduced version of the so-called bronze Apollo Citarista of the same type from the House of the Citharist at Pompeii (1), as this is one of many bronzes of which copies were and still are cast in Neapolitan foundries (2).

NOTES:

1. House I.4.5, 1853; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, inv. no. 5630; h. 1.58 m with base.

2. See, for example, S. Chiurazzi, Chiurazzi: Fonderie – ceramica – marmeria: Catalogo (Naples, 1929) 53, no. 76, and id., Chiurazzi, società anonima: Fonderie, ceramica, marmeria: Prezzo corrente (Naples, 1929) 32, available in the original size and in 2 reduced sizes, one of which is 62 cm (the correct full size for the Harvard bronze), and in three patinas – Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Renaissance. See also C. C. Mattusch and H. Lie, The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection (Los Angeles, 2005) 342-51.

Carol Mattusch

Harvard Art Museums