Bronze fountain figure of a Cupid playing with a dolphin
This bronze figure shows a familiar trope of Roman art: Cupid playing with or riding a dolphin. Here the dolphin is on the winged child's shoulder, a fountain spigot sticking out of its mouth.
The MANN doesn’t specify the findspot in Pompeii, but a bit of sleuthing reveals that it was discovered in 1880 in the Casa degli Archi or House of the Arches. It was tound on a base adiacent to a round marble basin, near the atrium and north-west corner of the peristyle, according to Wilhelmina Jashemski.
1st century CE, before 79 CE, of course.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN inv. 111701)
Bronze fountain figure of a Cupid playing with a dolphin
This bronze figure shows a familiar trope of Roman art: Cupid playing with or riding a dolphin. Here the dolphin is on the winged child's shoulder, a fountain spigot sticking out of its mouth.
The MANN doesn’t specify the findspot in Pompeii, but a bit of sleuthing reveals that it was discovered in 1880 in the Casa degli Archi or House of the Arches. It was tound on a base adiacent to a round marble basin, near the atrium and north-west corner of the peristyle, according to Wilhelmina Jashemski.
1st century CE, before 79 CE, of course.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN inv. 111701)