Head of Eros, 2nd century AD.

Head of Eros, 2nd century AD.
Marble.
Provenance: Belgian collection of the painter Alfred Delaunois in Leuven. Later Belgian private collection.
Measurements: 21 x 17 x 17 cm.
Head belonging to a complete and free sculpture of an infant, possibly of Eros, the Roman Cupid, the primordial god responsible for sexual attraction, love and sex, also revered as the god of fertility. Despite representing a powerful god, who was once cruel, here it shows a child with fleshy cheeks and curly hair, who outlines a subtle smile impregnated with tenderness. In Roman mythology Eros will generally be represented in the form of a winged child, while the Greeks depicted him as an ephebe. The representation of Eros will have a decisive influence on Christianity, not only with the mischievous putti, chubby-cheeked celestial beings, children playful with sin that accompany the sacred characters or important personalities, such as the Virgin, but the winged representation of Eros . adult, in its even more combative aspect, will be assumed by the great-winged archangels of medieval art.