This is a Roman copy of Polyclitus's Diadumenos (ca. 420 B.C.). Polyclitus of Argos (active ca. 460-420 B.C.) was quite far along in his career when he conceived this figure —probably Apollo— tying a ribbon ("diadoumenos") around his temples as a symbol of victory. At that time, his idea of a canon of ideal proportions had been enriched by his experience of Athenian art, as can clearly be seen in his taste for the profile and his plastic development of the hair.

This is one of the best-conserved copies. It was restored in the seventeenth-century, with the right arm in the wrong position, as it should properly be bent upwards, like the left arm.

Like most of the sculptures in the Prado Museum, it belonged to the collection of Christina of Sweden.