![]() ![]() On Second Century Roman sarcophagi the somnolent Eros becomes a sleeping or mourning funerary Genius, as on an example at the right entrance of the nave of S. The motive wandered, as did so many Hellenistic and Roman Imperial statuary types, as far afield as Germany, for the figure is found in stone, from Cannstadt and is now in the Stuttgart Museum 12. This Eros is combined in a lovely Neo-Classic pasticcio with a seated Venus, of which at least the head is ancient. Both have the same ungainly distortion of the stomach pushed out by the position of the left thigh. ![]() The Villa Borghese Eros 11has the head reset, but though reworked all appears to be ancient, inclusive of its section of the base, and of somewhat better workmanship than the Soane example. The statue on exhibition in the Museo delle Terme 10 turns Eros into a sleeping figure of a hooded peasant youth. The Vatican statue in the Museo Chiaramonti is a fountain figure of the Soane Eros turned into a Sleeping Fisherboy 7 and has a parallel in Boston 8 a smaller type known from a statue in the Antiquario Communale (1670-83), a similar Tiber fragment in the Terme Magazine, and another smaller copy in the Villa Albani 9. 5 A number of other European Museums contain replicas of the type in all sizes and materials. Another version quite close to the Soane type is a tiny bronze statuette in the British Museum called 'Somnus' but this is identified as 'perhaps a forgery' and so of doubtful antiquity. The style of the body, especially with the rudimentary wings, is close to that of the Soane statue. A statue in the Ny Carlsberg, Copenhagen 4 is a sleeping Hypnos-Thanatos with bow, quiver, and reversed torch in the rocks at his feet. In Graeco-Roman times the figure assumes a number of forms, meaning being given according to the costuming or to the varied attributes scattered on the rocks on which he sits. A small, alabaster, late Hellenistic, statuette of Aphrodite removing her sandal, from Byblos and now in the British Museum (1914,1020.1), features (in very high relief emerging from the support) a sleeping Eros of the type that continues in the Soane statue. The subject matter might suggest the Greek sculptor Praxiteles, rather than Lysippos or certainly Skopas. The central figure of this stele has been related to a Fourth Century work, probably by Lysippos, and, regardless of the problems posed by this statuary type 3, the Mourning Boy may also reflect a lost original in the manner of one of the great Fourth Century masters, perhaps a seated Eros adapted to a group with Aphrodite or independently as a tomb monument. The original conception of all these figures which survive in variant Roman modifications goes back to Greek precedent in something like the sleeping (or mourning) boy on the Illissos Grave-relief, now in the National Museum at Athens 2 this figure is, however, in a reversed position with head on the right knee. in this or an exactly reversed, pendant position with right leg drawn up to support the head and hands enjoys a long history in Hellenistic and Roman art, becoming especially popular as a fountain figure in freestanding sculpture of the imperial period and as a mourning guardian in Second Century and later funerary reliefs. The motif of the resting, sleeping, or mourning Eros, Child, Fisherboy, etc. The Cupid is in good condition except for the end of the nose which indicates a similar history as the Scopasian Hermes of the Palatine, now in the Museo delle Terme in Rome 1 whose body long stood exposed to the elements while the head, broken off and buried nearby, has survived in excellent condition. The surface of the body and the base are weathered. The left foot is missing, the side of the mouth of the urn broken away and the base broken irregularly. The head is in good condition, but has been broken off at the neck and rejoined and the the wings are partly broken off. There is a hole through the mouth of the urn matched by one in the bottom of the base, indicating that the figure was part of a fountain design/ensemble.įrom the uninspired quality of the workmanship, particularly in the treatment of the Cupid's stomach and its awkward relationship to the legs, the statue was probably Roman garden sculpture, from a small fountain of the Antonine period. The right foot is planted squarely on the ground. Cupid sits asleep on an overturned urn, arms and head resting on his left knee which is drawn up under him with the foot placed in the body of the urn. ![]()
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