Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This figure of Cupid (Eros) in flight is nude except for a Phrygian cap (1). Locks of hair emerge from under the cap to frame his face. The eyes, nose, and mouth are rendered somewhat unevenly on his broad face. He carries a curved staff in his right hand, which connects at the bottom to his right leg, and holds his left arm out, palm open. Cupid turns his head to the proper left, while his torso is frontal and bent forward slightly, and his legs are extended to the right, with the right leg down and the left leg raised and bent at the knee. The body from the torso to the legs is rendered in a particularly round, child-like way. His wings, which are extended to indicate flight, are short and curving. The details of the feathers are simple, indicated by semicircular punches and short incisions on the interior. The figure is modeled in the round, but there are very few additional details on the reverse.
In contrast to the Greek Eros, who was often depicted as a nude youth with wings, Roman Cupid generally took on the appearance of a putto, a slightly chubby young child. Cupids are depicted participating in many activities in Roman art, from music and dancing (2) to harvesting and farming (3) to fighting and playing games (4). Cupids (erotes) often appear as attendants to other deities, especially Venus (Aphrodite), and Harvard’s copper alloy Cupid statuettes may have been part of larger statuette groups (5). Cupids are also depicted with ritual accoutrements, such as offering plates or garlands, or in ritual actions such as pouring libations and participating in animal sacrifice (6).
NOTES:
1. Compare Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Eros 52f (phrygian cap, short wings, putto—perhaps by the same artisan; Paris Br 354, De Ridder p. 56, no. 354, pl. 30); Eros (in per. or.) 81 (one of the two erotes wears a Phrygian cap; Paris, Cab. Med. 250 from Syria, p. 108-109, no. 250).
2. See, for example, LIMC Eros/Amor, Cupido nos. 449-88.
3. See, for example, LIMC Eros/Amor, Cupido nos. 489-527.
4. See, for example, LIMC Eros/Amor, Cupido nos. 230-66.
5. For all examples of cupids in service of deities, see LIMC Eros/Amor, Cupido nos. 589-631; for Venus specifically, see LIMC Eros/Amor, Cupido nos. 589-605. Compare also LIMC Eros (in per. or.) nos. 76-88. For additional examples of Cupid and Venus groups in bronze, see A. de Ridder, Catalogue de la collection de Clercq 3: Les bronzes (Paris, 1905) 52-53, 61-62, 80-81, 87, and 91-92; nos. 61, 80, 113, 124, and 133; pls. 10, 13, 24, 27, and 29.
6. See, for example, LIMC Eros/Amor, Cupido nos. 689-714.
Lisa M. Anderson
