Few steps away from the Roman exhibition hall where tens of marble statues stand, there is a transparent display case sitting alone in the center of the room. Inside the glass case lies a bronze statues that attracts my ultimate interests, which I cannot stop myself from starring at it and having my face nearly touched the glass just to gain a closer view of the figure being carved. This bronze statue is named Bronze statue of Eros sleeping. The name of the bronze statue describes exactly the moment that the piece want to express – Eros, being portrayed as a baby deeply asleep, lying and leaning towards left side of his body – and establishes a special connection between me as the viewer and the statue itself. This connection, which is to an extent emotional and intellectual, is a feeling that I did not experience with other classical Greek statues I have encountered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The year and place of which these two bronze statues was made can be traced back to a timeline starting from third century B.C. to the early first century A.D., a period defined by art historians as the “Hellenistic Period”, in the island of Rhodes. This historical period started after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE. After Alexander’s death, his kingdom was divided by three of his generals, each distinct themselves with different political course. However, the artistic and cultural aspects of the three regions were still unified due to the effect from Greek predecessors. (Stokstad 120) As a result, the works from the Hellenistic World shares similarities with the classical Greek statue but also demonstrate significant distinctions.
The first difference I noticed is the object choice for portrayal. Typically seen from the Classical Greek sections of the museum, deities and heroes with vigorous and adult appearance are greatly favored as the choice of subject matter. The body shape, the facial and muscle structure, or the human form in general is highly idealized. Every Classical Greek statue tends to fit in a certain ‘golden ratio’ standard for the portrayal of human figure. Facial expressions appear serenity and calm, lack a sense of emotional response to the surrounding environment. In my opinion, those Classical Greek statues do not offer a strong, thoughtful intellectual connection with viewers. However, the bronze statue of Eros demonstrate a style with a completely different focus from the Classical Greek marble statues. Although Eros is still considered as a deity, his age no longer falls in the general age of adult or adolescence. Instead, this statue portrays a more approachable and innocent figure – Eros as a baby boy. From the museum description, it is stated that “Young children enjoyed great favor, whether in mythological form, as baby Herakles or Eros, or in genre scenes, playing with each other or with pets.” Thus, this statue of Eros clearly serves as a milestone that indicates Greek sculptors’ change of favor when choosing object. Its social function, in the Hellenistic Period, is said to be ‘less clear’ by the museum. Such guesses suggest this statue, in the Hellenistic Period, might be used as ‘dedications within a sanctuary of Aphrodite’ or ‘erected in a public park or a private, even royal, garden.’
This statue also reminds me of the Marble statue of an old woman, also known as the Market Womanfrom the textbook readings (Stockstad 124), which also portrays an everyday figure – this time in the form of an elderly – desire to make an offering to the wine god Dionysus. Without idealizing and glorifying any part of the body, the sculptor who carved out Market Woman also shows a determination to portray the purest and most realistic human form from the older population in the society. Hence, it is determined by these statue that artists in the Hellenistic Period thrived on creating works that represent every social level and status.
The second difference I noticed from the Eros statue that clearly identifies itself as a Hellenistic work is the body language – both facial expression and posture – and the body shape that the statue exhibits. Different from the counterpoise that the famous Classical Greek sculptor Polycleitus established, Eros in this case takes a much more relaxed and random gesture. He is lying on a stone, half twisting to the left side with his right hand stretching almost touching the ground. This gesture suggests to me a soundly asleep baby who is not aware of the edge of the bed and is going to fall off after another roll of the body. One step further from the counterpoise, this Hellenistic statue implies a further movement of the body and leaves imagination for the viewers. I also found this feature true on Nike (Victory) of Samothracefrom the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace. The image from the textbook reveals a marching deity, the positioning of the legs and the widely opened wings of Samothrace suggests to me the next big step she is about to take, or perhaps flying into the sky with a powerful uprising force. The statues from the Hellenistic World do not constraint in a static pose like those demonstrated by early Egyptian art. Instead, they are open for viewers to imagine the next stage of the statues’ body movements by offering a much more natural and common body language through the sculptures. The ordinary scene that Eros was depicted in also brings up an emotional connection to the general population, establishes an empathetic line between the viewers and the work. According to the textbook reading, this ‘deliberate attempt to elicit a specific emotional response in the viewer’ is classified as ‘expressionism’, a distinguishing feature of Hellenistic art. (Stockstad 123)
Examining the facial expression, the statue of Eros digresses from the traditional aloof appearance of the Classical Greek statues, for which eyes lose focus and mouths are closed, demonstrating an indifferent attitude. The statue of Eros, on the other hand, has a slightly opened mouth, possibly suggesting the breathe or light snoring coming out from the baby. I even had in mind the imagination of Eros drooling as a typical sleeping baby. His wings are down, covering his back and possibly the arrow quiver, suggesting the state of disarmed and off-guard. His eye lids appear naturally closed, insinuating peacefulness and calmness of the sleep. All of these elements reveals an ignorant, unaware and innocent figure, a concept that is significantly different from the theme of power and cruelty that is often associated with Eros in Archaic poetry. What I am more interested in is the body shape, specifically the roundness of the flesh that appears so three-dimensional and vivid, probably contributed by the choice of material of the statue. The careful chiseling and the polishing of the bronze gives the statue an ultimate smoothness, perfectly reflects the satiny and delicate skin of a baby. Different from the Classical Greek statues that usually portrays males with strong abdominal muscles and clear muscle lines on the rest of the body, Eros almost can be considered fat. His lower belly is falling to the left side and the wrinkles from his inner thighs suggest the accumulation of fat. This realistic portrayal of body shape of a baby appears more related to normal human – a definite characteristic of the work in the Hellenistic Period.
In conclusion, theBronze statue of Eros sleeping certainly exhibit the characteristics of works from the Hellenistic Period majorly in the extent of choice of portraying objects, sense of movement, emotional and intellectual connections with viewers and the demonstration of a more natural yet realistic approach to the physical state of the figure. These distinct characteristics of the statue of Eros are the reason that attracts my attention to the work and helps me better understand the development of artists’ ideas in the Greek and Roman period of art history.
