Seated Female Figure with Statue of Seated Eros

Roman art

This sculpture depicts a seated naked woman with one foot resting on a rock. In front of her, a winged Eros, also seated, is gazing up at her.

It is likely that these two figures belonged to two different monuments and were put together to complement the group of Leda and the Swan placed against the opposite wall. At the woman’s feet we can see a frog and a dolphin, the latter possibly from a third monument. The female figure is mentioned in 1650 inside the second enclosure of the garden, while the small Eros was cited in 1700 in the Room of the Three Graces on the second floor.

The sculptures can all be roughly dated to the second century CE.

Object details

Commentary

This sculpture is composed of elements of differing provenances, quite likely assembled with the intention of creating a pendant to the group of Leda and the Swan placed against the opposite wall of the room (Inv. LXII). In 1650, Manilli recalled a group set atop a column ‘in the upper order of the facade’ in the second enclosure of the garden, composed of a ‘seated Venus with a hand on one leg which is raised’, plausibly identifiable with this work (p. 153). In 1700, Montelatici also mentioned a ‘Venus with one leg raised above the knee’ in the same location; he also mentioned a ‘small statue of a seated cherub’ (p. 301) in the Room of the Three Graces on the second floor. In 1832, Nibby indicated the group was already composed and in its present location in Room 1, and defined it ‘a statue of Venus in Parian marble, seated, in the act of drying herself’, considering it a ‘not despicable work’. He further notes that ‘the cherub watching with its smart eyes is extremely expressive’ (p. 65). In a study carried out in 1841, he also mentioned the presence of a frog (p. 915). Venturi and Giusti both used the same expression to describe the sculpture: ‘a group depicting Venus in the act of preening while Eros looks on’ (1893 p. 21; 1904 p. 21). Moreno considered the work a modern reworking composed of elements datable to the mid-second century CE based on Hellenistic models from different periods (2003, p. 159, no. 128).

This group is composed of a female figure seated on a rock, naked except for a cloth draped over the right leg. The legs are bent: the right brought forward, while the left is concealed by the rock. The head is facing forward, addressing, in the modern composition, a winged Eros seated in front of her. This youthful figure is naked and both its hands are resting on its left knee, which is drawn up to his chest; due to conservation efforts, his gaze is turned upon the woman. On the pediment there are a small frog, just under the woman’s foot, and a dolphin concealed between her legs. The woman’s elegant position seems to evoke the nymph inviting to join in the dance, part of a group including a satyr playing an instrument found in 1830 in the area of the Villa di Sette Bassi, now preserved in the Torlonia collection (MT 21; MT 162: Settis, Gasparri 2020, pp. 192–195).

The Borghese sculptures have undergone extensive conservation and their modern arrangement makes their original context impossible to discern. Based exclusively on stylistic observations, the dating suggested by Moreno around the second century CE seems plausible. 

Giulia Ciccarello