South Italian Figurine: Seated Eros

Inv. No.: 88.008
Provenance: South Italy (probably Canosa)
Date: 3rd-2nd century BC
Height: 162mm
Width: 82mm
 
Gift of Mr Peter Charles Patty in memory of Manuel Ieromonahos.

A polychrome figurine of Eros as a naked youth, shown seated in a frontal position with his left hand (missing) on his left thigh, holding out an object in his right hand (object missing). He has slightly chubby features and wears a wreath on his head and a narrow piece of drapery (partly missing) that passes around his upper left arm, across his right shoulder, tucks under his right arm and falls onto his right thigh. His wings are held up at the back. Various fractures have been repaired. The clay is orange with extensive remains of white plus matt red and blue (on the wings). There is a small round vent on the underside of the figure. Eros was popular in the Hellenistic world and tended to become younger as the period progressed.

Function:
Used for funerary purposes; Eros was associated with the victory of life over death.

Manufacture:
A mould-made figure, probably made in several pieces that were then joined together, fired and then painted.

Bibliography:
Charles Ede Catalogue, 126 (1987), 10.

Higgins, R. A., Greek Terracottas, London, Methuen, 1967, 126-128 ("Apulia").

Comparanda:
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Zürich and München, Artemis, 1986, III, 2, Eros 34 e (similar style of Eros, shown dancing).

Richter, G. M. A., The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Handbook of the Greek Collection, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1953, Plate 108, c (flying Eros).

Wielen-van Ommeren, F. van der, "Polychrome Vases and Terracottas from Southern Italy in the J. Paul Getty Museum", Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, (Occasional Papers on Antiquities, 3), Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2 (1985), Fig. 12 (similar sitting Eros).