Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The Bronze Statue of Sleeping Eros in the Metropolitan Museum has long been recognized as one of the finest bronze statues to survive from antiquity. It was first published by Gisela Richter as an original Hellenistic sculpture or very close replica dated between 250 and 150 B.C. Many subsequent scholars tend to agree with Richter’s assessment although not her precise dating. Others believe it to be a very fine Roman copy of one of the most popular sculptures ever made in Roman Imperial times known from hundreds of copies, variants and adaptations. This article presents a new assessment based on careful scientific and technical examinations of the statue itself and a close study of other existing sculptures of this type. The research supports Richter’s identification of the statue as a Hellenistic work, but also makes apparent that it was restored in antiquity, most likely in the Early Imperial period. Consideration of the cult and mythology of Eros, other major Late Classical and Hellenistic sculptures, as well as the different meanings of the Sleeping Eros in later periods, enable a more cogent understanding of the original display of the Metropolitan Museum’s bronze statue of Sleeping Eros and its significance in antiquity.
Source: Spotlight
DOI: 10.4000/techne.1266
Authors: Seán Hemingway, Richard Stone
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2998692301