The Hellenistic period introduced the accurate characterization of age. Young children enjoyed great favor, whether in mythological form, as baby Herakles or Eros, or in genre scenes, playing with each other or with pets. This Eros, god of love, has been brought down to earth and disarmed, a conception considerably different from that of the powerful, often cruel, and capricious being so often addressed in Archaic poetry. One of the few bronze statues to have survived from antiquity, this figure of a plump baby in relaxed pose conveys a sense of the immediacy and naturalistic detail that the medium of bronze made possible. He is clearly based on firsthand observation. The support on which the god rests is a modern addition, but the work originally would have had a separate base, most likely of stone.
This statue is the finest example of its kind. Judging from the large number of extant replicas, the type was popular in Hellenistic and, especially, Roman times. In the Roman period, Sleeping Eros statues decorated villa gardens and fountains. Their function in the Hellenistic period is less clear. They may have been used as dedications within a sanctuary of Aphrodite or possibly may have been erected in a public park or private, even royal, garden.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze statue of Eros sleeping
Period:Hellenistic period
Date:3rd–2nd century BCE
Culture:Greek
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:16 1/2 × 14 × 33 9/16 in., 275 lb. (41.9 × 35.6 × 85.2 cm, 124.7 kg) Height (w/ base): 18 in. (45.7 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1943
Object Number:43.11.4
Said to have been found on Rhodes (Richter 1943-44, p. 122).
[1930, purchased by Joseph Brummer in Paris from Edouard Geladakis, Michel Petridi, and Ugo Jandolo]; [1930-1943, with Joseph Brummer, New York (P7108)]; acquired in 1943, purchased from Joseph Brummer.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
