Found in fragments in 1916, the polychrome terracotta sculpture represents the god Apollo, dressed in chiton and cloak, as he walks barefoot with his left arm outstretched forward and the other lowered, perhaps to carry the arch.
Together with other statues, this was also intended to decorate the top of the roof of the temple of Portonaccio in Veii, dedicated to the Etruscan goddess Menerva (Athena) and dated to the end of the 6th century BCE.
Apollo's threatening attitude is, therefore, to be related to the statue of Heracles displayed in the room in front of him and belonging to the same context: the god is ready to fight with the hero, who has just captured the deer with golden horns, sacred to his sister Artemis.
The statues of Portonaccio have been attributed to the "Master of Apollo", who belonged to the last generation of clay sculptors (coroplasts) of the workshop of Vulca, author of the famous statue of Jupiter in the Capitoline Temple (580 BCEca) commissioned by the first Etruscan king, Tarquinius Priscus; for the same temple, perhaps, at the end of the 6th century, King Tarquinius the Superb asked the "Master of Apollo" for two carts as an ornament for the roof.
G. Q. Giglioli, “Veio. Scavi nell’area della città e della necropoli: statue fittili di età arcaica”, in Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità 1919, vol. XVI, pp. 13-37, in part. figg. 2 e 3 alle pp. 13 e 14, pp. 16 e 18, tavv. I-IV.
M. Pallottino, “La scuola di Vulca”, in M. Pallottino, Saggi di antichità, I-III, Roma 1979, pp. 1008-1009, tavv. XXVIII-XXIX, XXX, 1-2.
G. Colonna, “Il maestro dell’Ercole e della Minerva. Nuova luce sull’attività dell’officina veiente”, in Opuscula Romana 16, 1987, a pp. 23 nota 43, 26 nota 54, figg. 57-58.
F. Boitani - M. Diana - T. Sante Guido, “Il restauro dell’Apollo di Veio”, in Kermes aprile-giugno 2004, pp. 41-60 (sul restauro).
G. Colonna, “L’officina veiente: Vulca e gli altri maestri di statuaria arcaica in terracotta”, in M. Torelli - A.M. Moretti Sgubini (a cura di), Etruschi. Le antiche metropoli del Lazio (Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni 21 ottobre 2008 - 6 gennaio 2009), Verona 2008, in part. pp. 59-62.
C. Carlucci, “Veio. La coroplastica: Veio, Portonaccio. 2. Apollo”, in M. Torelli - A.M. Moretti Sgubini (a cura di), Etruschi. Le antiche metropoli del Lazio (Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni 21 ottobre 2008 - 6 gennaio 2009), Verona 2008, p. 201 (con bibliografia precedente).