This bronze head is all that remains of a full length figure. It is thought to have been complete when found, but the body has been lost since its discovery.
The findspot was close to the Sanctuary of Apollo at Tamassos in Cyprus, and being larger than life-size and having long curly hair, Apollo is a good guess at whom it may represent. The material is significant, as there were important copper mines in that area of ancient Cyprus. The eyes, now lost, would have been glass, marble or ivory inserts
London British Museum
Given by the Duke of Devonshire in 1948
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 122 (n.9)
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), fig.451
Gjerstadt, E: Eranos XLIII (1945), 236-, pl. 11
Pfeiff: Apollon (1943), pls. 34-5
Wace: Journal of Hellenic Studies LVIII (1938), 90, pl. 8
Houser & Finn: Greek Monumental Bronze Sculpture, 72
Mattusch: Greek Bronze Statuary (1988), 155
Burn: Greek and Roman Art (1991), 58
Said to have been found in a river bed in Cyprus 1836; said to have been taken to Smyrna where it was bought by a Duke of Devonshire; thereafter at Chatsworth House, later the British Museum
