Su una statua di Erote dormiente a Torino: la 'fortuna' dimenticata di un marmo antico

Anna Maria Riccomini,

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Abstract

In his collection of antiquities Charles Emmanuel I Duke of Savoy imitated Isabella d’Este’s paragone between ancient and modern art by displaying together a Renaissance marble statue of a sleeping Cupid, formerly attributed to Michelangelo, and an ancient pendant. According to Antonio Corso, the ancient statue is based on Praxiteles’ sleeping teenage Eros, of which the Turin Eros is the only marble replica still existing. Purchased in Rome and with a probable provenance from the Garimberti collection, this sleeping Eros soon became one of the most admired pieces of the Savoy museum of antiquities.

In the late 19th century the attribution to Michelangelo of the Renaissance Cupid eclipsed the fame of the ancient statue. This paper traces back the ‘fortuna’ of Praxiteles’ sleeping Eros in the 18th and the beginning of the 19 th century, also documented by plaster casts in the collections of Filippo Farsetti in Venice (now lost) and Anton Raphael Mengs in Dresden and by a drawing by the painter Franz Caucig.

Keywords

• Sculpture
• Scultura
• Arte
• Art
• Torino