Author unrecognized according to PRAKSITELLES, Figure of Apollo with lizard

Patinated bronze, marble; height 52.5 cm; width 21 cm; depth 14 cm.
Italy, 20th century.
The sculpture is an original transformation of the work "Apollo Sauroktonos" (Lizard-killer) by the ancient Greek artist of the 4th century BC. - Praxiteles. It depicts a graceful figure of a young, naked man leaning with his raised left arm against the trunk of a tree, on which a lizard is crawling; Apollo's head is slightly bowed, with his eyes directed at the lizard; in his right hand - probably a weapon, with which he intends to stab the reptile.
On the base an illegible signature.
Plinth of black marble, rectangular, profiled.
Numerous Roman copies have been made of Praxiteles' unpreserved original bronze sculpture, mostly in marble; among the best known is the "Sauroktonos" in the Louvre collection. Other copies are on display at the Vatican Museums and the Villa Albani in Rome, among others.