Lot 27
  • 27

A Roman Marble Figure of Sleeping Eros with the Attributes of Herakles, Circa late 1st Century A.D.

Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
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Description

  • A Roman Marble Figure of Sleeping Eros with the Attributes of Herakles
  • Marble
  • Length 31 in. 78.7 cm.
based on a Hellenistic prototype, circa 2nd Century B.C., lying on his wing with his head resting on his left forearm and quiver, legs crossed, a club in his left hand, and wearing the lion skin drawn as a cap over the head and knotted on the chest, his bow at his side; the proper right foot and top edge of the proper left wing once restored in marble.

Provenance

European private collection, 18th Century or earlier (based on the restoration techniques)
French private collection, Paris, acquired in the early 1980s

Condition

As shown and described, surface weathered, some rust stains, scattered chips and abrasions including one larger chip on the belly as shown in the catalogue, edge of proper right wing lacking, holes drilled at sites of missing proper right foot and top edge of proper left wing for previous restoration in marble, now lacking, as 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 present sculpture falls within a specific category of sleeping erotes classified as the Bergamo-Vienna type, which is represented by seven other known examples (see M. Söldner, Untersuchungen zu liegenden Eroten in der hellenistischen und römischen Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 638ff., cat. nos. 77-83). For a related related example in the Museo dei Conservatori in Rome, inv. no. 936, see H. Stuart Jones, The Sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Oxford, 1926, p. 88, no. 25, pl. 32 (http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/26194).

The two versions thought to be closest to the original Hellenistic prototype are in a private collection in Bergamo and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. I 1426 (K. Lange, Der Schlafende Amor des Michelangelo, Leipzig, 1898, illus. p. 22 and fig. 2, respectively). Another example, once at Whitehall in London (see the late 17th Century drawing in Lange, op. cit., p. 52, upper left corner) is thought to have to have been lost in a fire and might have been the famous fake Sleeping Cupid created by Michelangelo in 1496 when he was 20 years old. Yet another version once thought to be Michelangelo's creation, this one clearly not ancient, is in Turin (see Lange, op. cit, p. 19, and C.M. Brown, "The Erstwhile Michelangelo Sleeping Cupid in the Turin Museo di Antichità," Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 5/1, 1993, pp. 59-63).