Praxiteles made a large bronze sculpture known as the Eros of Thespiae, which Pliny says was in Rome by the time he was writing, the first century CE, and since when it has disappeared. It was no doubt during its time in Rome that it inspired several Roman copies, of which this is one example.
Eros was the child of Aphrodite, and is often shown as a winged youth or later, a small child. In this sculpture he would probably have held a bow. This cast is missing the legs of the original in Rome
Rome, Vatican, Galleria delle Statue 250
Signed by the Micheli Brothers of Berlin
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 264 (n.11)
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 79, no.374(?)
Picard: Archéologie Grècque; Sculpture III (1948), 450, fig.181, pl. 8
Amelung: Catalogue of the Vatican Museum II (1908), 408-, pl. XLV
Lawrence: Classical Sculpture (1928), 249-
Found at Centocelle on the outskirts of Rome by Gavin Hamilton in the late eighteenth century
