The Greek sculptor who created the famous Apoxyomenos, or Scraper, was Lysippos.
The subject is an athlete scraping sweat, dust, and oil from his body with a curved tool called a strigil. The most renowned version was a lost bronze original made by Lysippos around 330 BC. The sculpture became famous in antiquity and was later copied in marble and bronze, allowing its design to survive despite the loss of the original.
Lysippos was a leading sculptor of the 4th century BC and served as the court sculptor of Alexander the Great. His figures typically have slimmer bodies, longer limbs, and smaller heads than the idealized athletes of Polykleitos. The Apoxyomenos also breaks away from a strictly frontal presentation: its extended arm projects into the viewer’s space, encouraging the statue to be seen from several angles.
The Vatican marble copy in Rome is the version most often reproduced in textbooks. Other related examples, including a nearly complete bronze found near Lošinj in Croatia, reflect the wide circulation of this athletic subject.