Plaster cast of the Capri Apollo
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1800 - 1825
Materials
Plaster, painted
Measurements
400 x 350 x 35 mm
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 128681
Summary
Plaster cast of the god Apollo casually draping his arm over a lyre. He stands beside an altar table on which a raven, his messenger, perches. Behind it stands a three-legged altar, a so-called tripod, on which the sacrifices to the gods are burned.
Full description
From the 'Capri Altar' discovered in the ruins of the villa of Tiberius on Capri. The British ambassador in Rome and husband of Lady Hamilton, William Hamilton, donated the 'altar' to the British Museum in 1775. The cast has a simple ledge frame on three sides that resembles the frame of the original, a first-century B.C. Roman marble candelabra now in the British Museum (BM. 1775.0616.1). The panels of the original show Apollo standing at an altar, Artemis feeding a deer, a boy and a man bringing a goat for sacrifice, and a final damaged panel showing only the feet.
Provenance
Possibly acquired by Charles, 1st Earl Whitworth (1752-1825).
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Knole, The Sackville Collection)