Cupid dancing: from Foggia to London

Today the focus of my attention is a dancing Cupid who managed to find his way from Italy’s Foggia to London’s British Museum. The bronze sculpture dates back to 10 – 100 AD. But before we meet the dancing Cupid of Roman times, let us have a look at a picture with Cupids from the early 19th century.

albani

The picture shows the dance of eight cupids, and is made after Albani.

There is so much happening in this picture, so many forms and movements.

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Comparing and contrasting this to the Roman Cupid  we see that the sculpture is almost minimalist. Cupid is naked, and he carries no accessories like his famous bow – with or without arrows.

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If there is an area where the unknown artist has gone overboard is the hair.

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All this Cupid features is his dance. He has no wings, and no blindfold.

The dance motion is light and simple.

right_foot

Observe the way the right foot lifts while is touches the ground.

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The boy’s nakedness is restrained, as shown by the right hand that curls behind the back.

cupid4 True to its Hellenistic inheritance, the Roman sculptor portrays Cupid as a chubby boy.

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A cup of the Boscoreale treasure

Epicurus was an Athenian philosopher who lived from 341 to 270 BC.

After his death some of his followers traveled to Rome, found champions of Epicureanism there, and set up Epicurean societies. Epicurean philosophy became very popular among the highly educated and intellectually oriented Romans.

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Epicurus

A prominent Epicurean School was established in Naples, initially directed by Siro.  It was there that a community of Epicureans flourished.

When it comes to the world of ideas and how they apply to everyday life, one needs to ask whether philosophical discourse is contained and restricted in the discussions of the school, the community, a group of friends. Of course we would not expect all people to be engaged in the discussion, but it is interesting to establish the degree to which these discussions have an impact on everyday life.

Today’s post is about one artifact that provide an indication that the presence of the Epicureans in the area of Naples was known to wider circles and was on occasion a topic of satire and humor.  

 

In 1895, excavations at a Roman villa at Boscoreale on the slopes of Vesuvius unearthed a remarkable hoard of silver treasure, including 109 items of tableware, which the owner had stashed in a wine tank prior to the eruption that buried the region of Naples in AD 79. This prestigious collection, dating from between the late 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD, testifies to one of the finest periods in Roman silverware and reflects the taste of wealthy Campanians for drinking cups with relief decoration.(1)

Among the cups, sixteen in number, two are especially noteworthy. They are four inches high, and form a pair; they are ornamented with skeletons in high relief, so grouped that each cup presents four scenes satirizing human life and its interpretation in poetry and philosophy. (2)

These two silver cups, famous for their strange decoration, are embellished with gold. They formed a pair of modioli (from the Latin, meaning “small measures”), so called because their shape is reminiscent of the modius, a container used to measure wheat. A Latin inscription on the base of one of the cups gives their weight and the name of their owner, Gavia. (1)

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The scenes from one of the two cups of poetry and philosophy

One of the two cups depicts two prominent Hellenistic philosophers, Epicurus and Zeno. 

On the left side of the picture above we have two skeletons engaged in a mute dialogue. The skeletons are the two philosophers, who were known for their deep differences.

At the left the Stoic Zeno appears, standing stiffly with his philosopher’s staff in his left hand, his wallet hanging from his neck; with right hand extended he points the index finger in indignation and scorn at Epicurus, who, paying no heed to him, is taking a piece of a huge cake lying on the top of a small round table. Beside Epicurus an eager pig with snout and left foreleg uplifted is demanding a share. Over the cake is the inscription: τὸ τέλος ἡδονή, ‘the goal of life is pleasure.’ The letters of the inscription, as of the names of the philosophers, are too small to be shown distinctly in our illustration.(2)

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Zeno of Citius was a Greek philosopher (334-262 BC) who stood opposite to Epicurus. He founded the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from around 300 BC. Zeno believed that pleasure is a vice. Stoicism became the foremost popular philosophy among the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire.

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Bronze piglet from a villa in Hercolanum

A few words about the piglet are in order.

Epicureans were likened to pigs by many of opposing views, in order to denigrate the principal Epicurean view that the goal of life is pleasure. This has been documented by the Roman poet Horace.  

In an epistle addressed to his melancholy friend and fellow poet, Albius Tibullus, Horace wrote: (3) 

Treat every day that dawns for you as the last.
The hour that’s unhoped for will be welcome when it comes.
When you want to smile then visit me: sleek, and fat
I’m a hog, well cared-for, one of Epicurus’ herd.

The bronze piglet we see above is in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, and was found in the Villa of Papyri in Herculaneum, where it supposedly partnered Epicurus’ bust. 

In my view the presence of the piglet on the cup is fully justified by the association of Epicureans with pigs. It is quite interesting to note the humorous aspect of the depiction.  

The two cups have similar and complementary repoussé decoration depicting the skeletons of tragic and comic poets and famous Greek philosophers, beneath a garland of roses. Greek inscriptions engraved in dots form captions, and are accompanied by Epicurean maxims such as: “Enjoy life while you can, for tomorrow is uncertain.” (1)

Drinking cups like these were used at the verbal sparring matches held at Roman banquets. As at Trimalchio’s feast (described by Petronius in the Satyricon), the guests sought to outdo each other in erudition, using Greek philosophical and literary references to promote sensual and intellectual pleasures. The choice of a ring of skeletons to decorate these modioli is neither macabre nor particularly surprising, but is on the contrary a hymn to life—an incitement to enjoy the present. This same theme is often represented—admittedly with less panache—on everyday items such as earthenware goblets, lamps, mosaics, or funerary monuments. Trimalchio himself had articulated silver skeletons placed on the table for his guests (Satyricon, 34, 8-10), reminding them that humans should be humble, as even the most enlightened poet or philosopher cannot avoid death.(1)

Both cups had evidently long been in use; there are still some traces of gilding, which, however, seems not to have been applied to the skeletons. While the explanatory inscriptions are in Greek, a Latin name, Gavia, is inscribed on the under side of the second cup, in the same kind of letters as the record of weight. The Gavii were a family of some prominence at Pompeii; we are perhaps warranted in concluding that the cups were made by a Greek for this Pompeian lady, and that afterward they came into the possession of another lady, Maxima, who formed the collection.(2)

After looking at the cup with the two philosophers we can clearly assume that the philosophical dialogue between Stoics and Epicureans was conducted out in the open and was an item of discussion and satire among the wealthy.

References

(1) Boscoreale Treasure, Louvre Museum, Paris, France

(2) Pompeii, Its Life and Art, by August Mau

(3) Epicurean Happiness: A Pig’s Life?  David Konstan. Journal of Ancient Philosophy Vol. VI 2012 Issue 1

 

Putti Sculptures from three periods: Hellenistic, (late) Renaissance, and Neoclassicism

Introduction

The Italian word “putto” is derived from the Latin word “putus”, meaning “boy” or “child”.

In this post I present sculptures with children from three periods: Hellenistic, Renaissance, and Neoclassicism.

Cupid is not included in the genre of “putti”, being a rather special child. So there will be no cupid here. Along the same line of sticking to the “ordinary”, I will not include “winged” chldren, or deities of any time.

Finally, I will not include any sculptures of the Holy Child with or without the Holy Mother.

Children (ordinary, I emphasize this) were depicted in sculpture in the Hellenistic period, and became again the subject of a sculpture in the Renaissance. The neoclassicism of the 18th century also depicted children in sculptures.

I have taken all the photos in this post.

Hellenistic Period

This sculpture of a boy with a goose, was originally created by the famous sculptor Boethus of Chalcedon, near Constantinople, in the second century B.C. The Roman Emperor Nero transported the original to his palace in Rome, where he had it copies. What survives today in Munich’s Glyptothek is the Roman copy of the original.

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Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich.

There is an incredible energy and motion in this sculpture, but also the spirit of having fun and enjoying life. This is what our protagonist does here, even at the expense of the goose, which seems to be rather subordinated. In real life, I would be surprised if the boy could handle the goose like this for more than one second.

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Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich.

From this angle, the boy has taken an almost wrestling posture.

Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich.
Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich.
Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich.
Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich. – Detail
Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich. - Detail
Roman copy of Hellenistic sculpture, Boy with Goose. Glyptothek, Munich. – Detail

Late Renaissance

Giambologna was a Flemish sculptor who spent most of his productive years in Florence.

Two bronze Giambologna statues depicting a child fishing are at the Bargello Museum in Florence.

Giambologna: Child Fishing - Putto Pescatore, Bargello Museum, Florence
Giambologna: Child Fishing – Putto Pescatore, Bargello Museum, Florence

The boy is playing with the fish. He is holding the remnant of a fishing rod and is having a good time. Playful and carefree.

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Giambologna: Child Fishing – Putto Pescatore, Bargello Museum, Florence

In the second sculpture, we see the fishing boy in a different posture, something like a declaration to the world “I caught a fish!”. Simple and beautiful.

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Giambologna: Child Fishing – Putto Pescatore, Bargello Museum, Florence. – Detail
giambologna_putto_pescatore2_head
Giambologna: Child Fishing – Putto Pescatore, Bargello Museum, Florence. – Detail

Neoclassicism

The period is represented in this post by Lorenzo Bartolini and his student Luigi Pampaloni.

Basrtolini was an Italian sculptor of the late 18th – early 19th century. I saw an exhibition of their works in Academia Gallery in Florence, the Bartolini’s birth place.

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Lorenzo Bartolini: Child with Swan

I somehow feel that this boy with the swan comes nowhere near the boy with the goose. It is an ok sculpture, but it is flat, and almost superficial.

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Luigi Pampaloni Praying Putto (the Orphan) (after 1826)

Pampaloni’s orphan is also an ok sculpture, but it does not move me. Technically it is fine, but the sculpture has no soul.

Which reminds me, that in art as in society, we need the great and the bad and the average, otherwise, this would have been a very strange world!