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Roman

Portrait of a Boy as Eros, late 1st/2nd century CE

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Roman

Title

Portrait of a Boy as Eros

Year

late 1st/2nd century CE

Medium

Marble

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • island marble

Dimensions

17.8 x 15.2 x 16.8 cm (7 x 6 x 6 5/8 inches)

Place

Italy

Type

  • Sculpture

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

03.009

Projects & Publications

Publications

Rethinking the Romans

New Views of Ancient Sculpture

Classical Sculpture

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Rethinking the Romans

April 6, 2001 - January 2, 2009

For many years, this piece was thought to represent Eros. Its distinctive curly hairstyle, with braid and topknot, is common to depictions of youthful mythological figures; yet the work’s extremely distinctive facial features, including the supple cheeks, dimple, protruding upper lip and receding chin, suggest instead that it was a portrait. The RISD head may be a blend of the two: a portrait with personalized features styled into an overall type of mythical figure. Such a practice is known for both adults and children, often in a funerary context, especially in the second and third centuries AD. In these, the deceased are represented with a portrait head and the attributes of a deity in order to suggest that he possessed qualities particular to the deity, or, especially in the case of children, that the deceased would continue to be under the protection of that deity in the afterlife.

Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries

Weiss Ancient Art Gallery

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Portrait of a Boy as Eros with the accession number of 03.009. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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