The Hellenistic period introduced the accurate characterization of age, and 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. This child, with his plump body and relaxed pose, is clearly based on firsthand observation. Eros, god of love, has been brought down to earth and disarmed, a conception considerably different from that of the powerful, often cruel, and capricious being so often addressed in Archaic poetry. One of the few bronze statues to have survived from antiquity, this figure gives a sense of the immediacy and naturalistic detail that the medium of bronze made possible. The support on which the god rests is a modern addition, but the work originally had a separate base, most likely of stone.
cxd
<P>The Hellenistic period introduced the accurate characterization of age, and 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. This child, with his plump body and relaxed pose, is clearly based on firsthand observation. Eros, god of love, has been brought down to earth and disarmed, a conception considerably different from that of the powerful, often cruel, and capricious being so often addressed in Archaic poetry. One of the few bronze statues to have survived from antiquity, this figure gives a sense of the immediacy and naturalistic detail that the medium of bronze made possible. The support on which the god rests is a modern addition, but the work originally had a separate base, most likely of stone. </P>
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