Italian Early ‘After the Antique’ Bronze Figure of the Apollino

Period: 1700-1800

Origin: Italy

Medium: Bronze

Literature: Giacomo Zoffoli’s workshop was famous in 18th century Rome for producing fine quality reductions in bronze after revered ancient antique marbles.
The Apollino is recorded as being in the villa Medici in Rome in 1704 and although its discovery and early history is obscure, it quickly became one of the most popular antique statues of the time highly praised and admired for ‘the sweep and the whole contour of the body’ (Richardson 1722 p128). In 1806 Denon mentioned the statue together with the Farnese Hercules and the Borghese Gladiator, as a superlative masterpiece much needed for the Musée Napoléon. Today the marble resides in the Uffizi (Tribuna) in Florence.