View source for Lyceus

{{Other uses|Lycian (disambiguation)}}
[[Image:Lycian Apollo Louvre left.jpg|thumb|upright|A statue of the ''Apollo Lykeios'' type at the [[Louvre]]]]

The '''Apollo Lyceus''' ({{langx|el|Ἀπόλλων Λύκειος}}, ''Apollōn Lukeios'') type, also known as '''Lycean Apollo'''<!-- "Lycian" is a misnomer; "Lycaean" is a hypercorrection -->, originating with [[Praxiteles]]<ref>A connection made "on insufficient grounds" according to [[Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway]] (Ridgway, "A Story of Five Amazons", ''American Journal of Archaeology,'' '''78'''.1 [January 1974:1-17] p. 9)</ref> and known from many full-size statue and figurine copies as well as from 1st century BCE [[History of Athens|Athenian]] [[Athenian coinage|coinage]], is a statue type of [[Apollo]] showing the god resting on a support (a tree trunk or [[tripod]]), his right forearm touching the top of his head and his hair fixed in braids on the top of a head in a haircut typical of childhood. It is called "Lycean" not after [[Lycia]] itself, but after its identification with a lost work described, though not attributed to a sculptor, by [[Lucian]]<ref>''Anacharsis'' (7).</ref> as being on show in the [[Lyceum (classical)|Lyceum]], one of the [[gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasia]] of [[Athens]].  According to Lucian, the god leaning on a support with his bow in his left hand and his right resting on his head is shown "as if resting after long effort." Its main exemplar is the ''[[Apollino]]'' in [[Florence]] or ''Apollo Medici'', in the [[Uffizi]], Florence.<ref>{{in lang|de}} Wilhelm Klein, ''Praxiteles'', Leipzig, 1898, p.&nbsp;158.</ref>

<!--this is a ref. to Lucian, no?:Another literary source does not attribute this type to Praxiteles,-->The attribution, based on the type's "elongated proportions, elegant pose and somewhat effeminate anatomy", as [[Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway]] characterised it,<ref>Ridgway 1974:9.</ref> is traditionally supported on the grounds of the type's similarity to Praxiteles's ''[[Praxiteles#Hermes and the Infant Dionysus|Hermes]]'' from Olympia – one replica of the ''Lycian Apollo'' even passed as a copy of the ''Hermes'' for a time.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Martinez, « Les styles praxitélisants », p.&nbsp;334.</ref>  The comparison essentially rests on the ''Apollino'', whose head has proportions similar to those of the [[Aphrodite of Cnidus]]<ref>As represented by [http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=20300 Head Ma421] in the Louvre. {{in lang|it}} Giulio Emmanuele Rizzo, Prassitele, Milan et Rome, 1932, p.&nbsp;80-81.</ref> and whose pronounced ''[[sfumato]]'' confirms the long-held idea that it is Praxitelean in style, in spite of the many differences among the extant examples.

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]],<ref>{{in lang|de}} S. F. Schröder, « Der Apollon Lykeios und die attische Ephebie des 4. Jhr » in ''Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung'', 101 (1986), p.&nbsp;167-184.</ref> or of a 2nd-century BCE work<ref>{{in lang|de}} M. Nagele, « Zum Typus des Apollon Lykeios » in ''Jahreshefte des Österreichischen archäologischen Instituts in Wien'', 55 (1984), p.&nbsp;77-105.</ref> The ''Apollino'', for its part, would thus be an eclectic creation from the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] era, mixing several styles from the "[[second classicism]]" (i.e. from the 4th century BC).<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Martinez, « Les styles praxitélisants », p.&nbsp;335.</ref>

The famous pose with the arm resting on the head was so thoroughly identified with Apollo that it was used for the Hadrianic sculpture of [[Antinous]] as Apollo at [[Leptis Magna]].<ref>Ch. W. Clairmont, ''Die Bildnisse des Antinous'' (Rome, 1966:29 no. 38), noted by Ridgway 1974:9.</ref> With the [[Hellenistic sculpture|Hellenistic]] and [[Roman sculpture|Roman]] depictions of a youthful [[Dionysus]] typologically not always distinguishable from Apollo, the pose seems to have been inherited by Dionysus, as in the 2nd century CE [[Ludovisi Dionysus]], a Roman sculpture. The pose is also used in the [[Amazon statue types]], and its long-established<ref>Ridgway 1974 .</ref> conventional expression of lassitude identified [[Sleeping Ariadne]] as well.

{{gallery
|width=170 | height=180
|align=center
|Image:AGMA Apollon Lykeios.jpg
|Statuette of the ''Apollo Lykeios'' type, [[Ancient Agora of Athens|Museum of the Ancient Agora of Athens]] (inv. BI 236)
|File:Lycian Apollo-Hermitage.jpg
|''Sleeping Apollo'', Roman ([[Hermitage Museum]])
}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Praxiteles}}

[[Category:Sculptures of Apollo]]
[[Category:Sculptures by Praxiteles]]
[[Category:Epithets of Apollo]]
[[Category:Nude sculptures of men]]