A Marble Group of Eros and Anteros, the Figures Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D., combined as a group in the 16th Century

Eros advancing on an oblong base and discovering his diminutive brother asleep with his bow at his side, his face with parted lips, his hair arranged in a top knot and falling in wavy curls before the ears; the two ancient figures of Eros carved separately and later inserted into the base.

the antiquarian Fabio Baveri (Fabius Baverius), Rome, by 1594
Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637), Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, acquired between 1600 and 1633
Austrian private collection, Vienna
acquired by the present owner from the above in 2006

Giovanni Battista de Cavalieri (Cavalleriis), Antiquarum statuarum Urbis Romae, Rome, 1594, pl. 65 (described as "Castor et Pollux pro meretriculae Voto Successio Amatorum, in aedibus Fabij Bauerij")
Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Antiquarum statuarum Urbis Romae primus et secundus liber, Rome, between 1635 and 1672, pl. 61 (same as Cavalieri, op. cit., pl. 65)
Galleria Giustiniana del Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, vol. I, Rome, 1640, pl. 25 (engraving by Giovanni Valesio)
Comte de Clarac, Musée de sculpture antique et moderne, Paris, vol. IV, Paris, 1850, pp 143-144, pl. 641, no. 1454, illus.
Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de la sculpture grecque et romaine, vol. I, Paris, 1906, p. 352, no. 2, illus.
Elizabeth Cropper, "The Petrifying Art: Marino's Poetry and Caravaggio," Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 26, 1991, p. 201, fig. 6
Elizabeth Cropper, "Vincenzo Giustiniani's 'Galleria.' The Pygmalion Effect," in Cassiano dal Pozzo's Paper Museum, vol. II, 1992, pp. 116, 117, and 118 (illus.)
Angela Gallottini, Le sculture della Collezione Giustiniani: I Documenti, Rome, 1998, p. 68, no. 19 (1633 inventory), p. 86, no. 170 (1638 inventory), p. 138, no. 164 (1667 inventory), p. 190, no. 154, p. 266, no. 48 (1811 inventory)
Giulia Fusconi, ed., I Giustiniani e l'antico, Rome, 2001, pp. 428 and 519 (illus.)

Arms, wings, and front of feet of standing Eros restored in marble (edge of proper right wing appears to be ancient), feet, face and proper right arm of sleeping Anteros restored in marble, both figures were separately inserted into a custom-made marble base probably during the Renaissance, body of Eros was re-polished, head with areas of wear and abrasion on top of the hair.
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Until now the present group was only known through three engravings, the first published in 1594, when the sculpture was in the collection of Fabio Baveri, the second in 1640, when it was part of the famed Giustiniani Collection, and the third in 1850 (based on the 1640 version). Because of the group's unusual iconography it has been suggested, based solely on the 1640 engraving, that it was an entirely Baroque work (Cropper, op. cit., 1992, p. 117, n. 48). We know now that it is a composite late-Renaissance creation reusing mostly ancient elements.

Very little is known of Fabio Baveri, the first recorded owner of the present group (see Bibliografia romana. Notizie della vita e delle opera degli scrittori romani dal secolo XI fino ai nostri giorni, vol. I, Rome, 1880, pp. 29-30). He authored a book on Latin inscriptions, which is preserved only in manuscript form (Biblioteca Vaticana, Codex Ottoboniano 2970), and also owned a statue of the Callipygian Venus described as "Cytherea posteritatem prospiciens" (Cavalieri, op. cit., pl. 66).

For a related striding child in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek see S. Reinach, Répertoire de la sculpture grecque et romaine, vol. IV, p. 266, no. 3.