Bronze Statue of Eros Sleeping, Greek,Hellenistic or Augustan,3rd century BC-2st century AD.Said to be from the island of Rhodes
The actual characterization of age was introduced in the Hellenistic period.Young children enjoyed great favor,whether in in mythological form,as baby Herakles or Eros,or in genre scenes playing with each or with pets.This Eros,has been brought down to earth and disarmed,a conception considerably different from that of the powerful,often cruel and capricious being so often addressed in Archaic poetry.One of the few statue of its kind to survive in tact from antiquity,this figure of a plump baby in repose conveys the sense of a the immediacy and naturalistic detail that the medium of bronze made possible. He is clearly based on firsthand observation.The support of which the god rests is a modern addition,but the work originally would have had a separate base,most likely of stone.
Judging from the extant replicas,the type was popular in Hellinistic and,especially,Roman times.In the Roman period sleeping Eros statues decorated villa gardens and fountains.Their function in the Hellinistic period is less clear.They may have been used in decorations within a sanctuary of Aphrodite or possibly may have been erected in a public park or private,or even royal,garden.
Bronze Statue of Eros Sleeping, Greek,Hellenistic or Augustan,3rd century BC-2st century AD.Said to be from the island of Rhodes
The actual characterization of age was introduced in the Hellenistic period.Young children enjoyed great favor,whether in in mythological form,as baby Herakles or Eros,or in genre scenes playing with each or with pets.This Eros,has been brought down to earth and disarmed,a conception considerably different from that of the powerful,often cruel and capricious being so often addressed in Archaic poetry.One of the few statue of its kind to survive in tact from antiquity,this figure of a plump baby in repose conveys the sense of a the immediacy and naturalistic detail that the medium of bronze made possible. He is clearly based on firsthand observation.The support of which the god rests is a modern addition,but the work originally would have had a separate base,most likely of stone.
Judging from the extant replicas,the type was popular in Hellinistic and,especially,Roman times.In the Roman period sleeping Eros statues decorated villa gardens and fountains.Their function in the Hellinistic period is less clear.They may have been used in decorations within a sanctuary of Aphrodite or possibly may have been erected in a public park or private,or even royal,garden.