Old Centaur Ridden by Eros
- Title:
- Old Centaur Ridden by Eros
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
first half of the 2nd c. CE (Roman copy)
ca. 2nd c. BCE (Hellenistic original)
2008 (image)
- Site:
- Villa Fonseca, Rome, Italy (discovery site, 17th c.) (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Villa Fonseca, Rome, Italy (discovery site, 17th c.) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0180
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 341
(new sticker, illegible)
180 - File Name:
- CCC_0180.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 147 (H) x 107 (W) x 52 (D) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Hellenistic Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman Imperial, after Hellenistic Greek
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Eros (Greek deity)
Centaurs - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 135 (without plinth) (centimeters, height)
plinth: 11 x ca. 107 x 54 (centimeters, height x width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a cast of a marble group of an old Centaur ridden by Eros from the Louvre's Borghese Collection. The Centaur stands facing the viewer's right with his human body twisted toward the viewer, his back arched, his head turned and tilted back, and his arms tied behind his back. His animal and horse parts are well-muscled. His wavy hair and beard are full and untamed and he looks out with a furrowed brow and an expression of agony. The Centaur's tail is swept up to his side, suggesting agitation. His right (proper) front leg is lifted from the ground but is broken away in this cast (see ID no. 531). Eros straddles the beast's back. He is represented as a chubby, winged toddler wearing a vegetal wreath on his head and a belt at his belly. He shifts his body towards the viewer and reaches up to the Centaur's head with his left hand. The head, right arm, and wings of Eros are broken away in this cast. The existence of the Furietti Centaurs, a pair of dark gray marble Centaurs ridden by Eros, one young and one old, that were excavated from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli in 1736 and are housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome, suggests that the original of this Centaur and Eros group was probably one member of a pair displayed together. The prototype for the work is perhaps a Hellenistic bronze of the 2nd c. BCE and the copy is placed in the Hadrianic period, with speculation that the type is a creation of the Roman Imperial period.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. Ma 562 - Bibliography:
- Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 179
- Related Work:
- Belongs with ID no. 531.
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Paris, Louvre (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.