Statuette of Aphrodite and Eros

Place of OriginSyria, Tartus (found there in 1896)

Date250-150 BCE

Dimensions16 5/16 × 6 11/16 × 5 15/16 × 5 15/16 in. (41.5 × 17 × 15.1 × 15.1 cm)

MediumBronze with silver inlays for the eyes (Aphrodite) and separate gold and silver jewelry.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1968.71

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionA cast bronze group depicting a standing Aphrodite and a smaller figure of Eros. Aphrodite wears intricately detailed gold anklets, bracelets, and a necklace with a pendant - all of which are presently assumed to be ancient - and her eyes are inlaid with silver. The accompanying Eros figure is adorned with a silver necklace and pendant. The figures are mounted on a separately cast base.

Label TextAphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, adorns herself with jewelry in this small sculpture. Her son Eros, the unpredictable god of desire, looks up, ready to fly off at her command. He carries a small torch that symbolizes the heat of passion. Although the original owner of this sculpture is unknown, we do know that it was re-discovered by amateur archaeologist and avid antiquities collector Louis de Clercq in 1896. De Clercq amassed a huge collection as he traveled and excavated throughout present-day Lebanon and Syria in the second half of the 19th century. In De Clerq's records, this group is described as coming from "Tartous(?)".Published ReferencesRidder, André Henri Pierre de, Collection de Clercq; catalogue methodique et raisonné, Paris, 1885-1911, 7 vol. in 8, vol. 3, 1905, Les Bronces, p. 61F, no. 80 pl. XIII,l.

Bulletin des Antiquaries de France, 1897, p. 264-269, 280 fig.

Reinach, Salomon, Répertoire de la Statuaire grecque et Romaine, 2nd ed. Paris, 1906-1924, 5 vols., in 6, vol. 2, part 2, 1909, p. 805, fig. 7.

Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 12.

Mattusch, Carol C., The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums, 1996, pp. 267-268, cat. 32-34, repr. fig. I.

Mattusch, Carol C., Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples, Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, 2008, p. 131, fig. 2.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Charbonneaux, Jean, Les Brozes Grecs, Paris, 1958, p. 121 (describes de Clercq Collection).