Lot 20
  • 20

A Bronze Figure of Weeping Eros, Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D.

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description

  • A Bronze Figure of Weeping Eros
  • Bronze
  • Height 7 in. 17.8 cm.
Standing with his weight on his left leg, his body resting against a square pillar hung with garlands of fruit, and wearing open sandals, sash knotted over his left hip, and cloak draped over his left arm and the pillar, a link of chain suspended on his thigh, his hair bound in a fillet and close-fitting cap with opening for the top-knot and incised zig-zag border in the back, a mortise on each shoulder blade for attachment of the missing wings

Provenance

Mathias Komor, New York
Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., New York (Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, May 19th, 1979, no. 204, illus.)

Exhibited

"Master Bronzes from the Classical World," The Fogg Art Museum, December 4th, 1967 - January 23rd, 1968, City Art Museum of Saint Louis, March 1st - April 13th, 1968, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, May 8th - June 30th, 1968
on loan to The Brooklyn Museum, 1976-1979 (inv. no. L76.11.20)

Literature

David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exhibition catalogue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [1968], no. 127, illus.
Suzannah Doeringer, David Gordon Mitten, and Arthur Richard Steinberg, Art and Technology: A Symposium on Classical Bronzes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970, p. 253
Robert S. Bianchi, "Collector and Collecting," The Art Gallery, vol. 22, 1978, p. 105

Condition

Excellent, as shown and described.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The only other known bronze version of this subject is in the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia (Eros: From Hesiod's Theogony to Late Antiquity, N. Chr. Stampolidis and Y. Tassoulas, eds., Athens, 2009, p. 94, no. 23) but appears to derive from a different type more commonly found in Hellenistic terracottas.

Roman marble examples closely related to the present bronze figure of Eros are in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (L. Curtius, "Poenitentia," in Festschrift für James Loeb, Munich, 1930, fig. 31-b, pl. 3), Galleria Borghese (Curtius, op. cit., fig. 2, LIMC III.2, s.v. "Eros/Cupido," no. 78, and P. Moreno and A. Viacava, eds., I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese, 2003, p. 228, no. 215), and Museo Nazionale Romano (I,2, no. 43, with a list of other fragmentary copies found in Italy).

According to Ludwig Curtius (op. cit.) the bound figure of weeping Eros refers to his punishment by the goddess Nemesis, perhaps for tormenting Psyche; the original Greek statue, which he dates to the early Hellenistic period, would have been placed in a sanctuary of Nemesis.