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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
C. H. Smith and C. A. Hutton, Catalogue of the Antiquities (Greek, Roman and Etruscan) in the Collection of the Late Wyndham Francis Cook, Esqre, London, 1908, no. 326, pl. XVIII.
According to C. H. Smith, the artist of this cameo was perhaps more used to engraving intaglios, as evidenced by his placing the whip in the left hand of the driver, and the reigns in the right, a reversal of the usual manner of depicting charioteers.
Though cameos and intaglios showing Eros riding a chariot and playing with butterflies abound, depictions of the god riding a butterfly-drawn chariot are exceedingly rare. The British Museum holds one such example, a black-paste intaglio formerly in the Townley collection, no. 1814,0704.1700, as does the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien (E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Die antiken Gemmen, vol. 1, 1973, no. 446). The J. Paul Getty Museum has a garnet intaglio showing Eros standing on a butterfly and holding reigns, inv. no. 83.AN.256.7.
Though the wide variety of animals usually shown drawing Eros's chariot, including swans, mice and hares, seem to serve primarily to lend humour to the scene, the use of butterflies for such may have sought to allude to Psyche, Eros's mythological bride, whose symbolic manifestation was the winged insect. Certainly, following Apuleius's 2nd Century A.D. work Metamorphoses, which gives the fullest treatment of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, scenes of the two gods increased in popularity. Depictions of Psyche in her anthropomorphic form pulling Cupid's chariot are found both on gemstones (cf. British Museum, no 3856, Staatlichen Münzsammlung, Munich, no. 1169, and Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, no, 25840) and in mosaics, (cf. Hatay Archaeological Museum, Antakya, Turkey, no. 864). Scenes of Cupid and Psyche in glyptic art often involve the god toying with his bride, whether in her anthropomorphic or zoomorphic form - for example, he is shown dangling a butterfly over a torch (Fitzwilliam Museum, no. B163), and even burning the feet of a naked and bound Psyche (Paris, Cabinet Des Medailles, in V. Platt, 'Burning Butterflies: Seals, Symbols and the Soul in Antiquity' in L. Gilmour (ed.), Pagans and Christians - from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, London, 2007, p. 96). Such images have been argued to have a potent allegorical meaning, representing Eros's, i.e. love's, torturous treatment of the soul (V. Platt, p. 94).
C. H. Smith and C. A. Hutton, Catalogue of the Antiquities (Greek, Roman and Etruscan) in the Collection of the Late Wyndham Francis Cook, Esqre, London, 1908, no. 326, pl. XVIII.
According to C. H. Smith, the artist of this cameo was perhaps more used to engraving intaglios, as evidenced by his placing the whip in the left hand of the driver, and the reigns in the right, a reversal of the usual manner of depicting charioteers.
Though cameos and intaglios showing Eros riding a chariot and playing with butterflies abound, depictions of the god riding a butterfly-drawn chariot are exceedingly rare. The British Museum holds one such example, a black-paste intaglio formerly in the Townley collection, no. 1814,0704.1700, as does the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien (E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Die antiken Gemmen, vol. 1, 1973, no. 446). The J. Paul Getty Museum has a garnet intaglio showing Eros standing on a butterfly and holding reigns, inv. no. 83.AN.256.7.
Though the wide variety of animals usually shown drawing Eros's chariot, including swans, mice and hares, seem to serve primarily to lend humour to the scene, the use of butterflies for such may have sought to allude to Psyche, Eros's mythological bride, whose symbolic manifestation was the winged insect. Certainly, following Apuleius's 2nd Century A.D. work Metamorphoses, which gives the fullest treatment of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, scenes of the two gods increased in popularity. Depictions of Psyche in her anthropomorphic form pulling Cupid's chariot are found both on gemstones (cf. British Museum, no 3856, Staatlichen Münzsammlung, Munich, no. 1169, and Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, no, 25840) and in mosaics, (cf. Hatay Archaeological Museum, Antakya, Turkey, no. 864). Scenes of Cupid and Psyche in glyptic art often involve the god toying with his bride, whether in her anthropomorphic or zoomorphic form - for example, he is shown dangling a butterfly over a torch (Fitzwilliam Museum, no. B163), and even burning the feet of a naked and bound Psyche (Paris, Cabinet Des Medailles, in V. Platt, 'Burning Butterflies: Seals, Symbols and the Soul in Antiquity' in L. Gilmour (ed.), Pagans and Christians - from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, London, 2007, p. 96). Such images have been argued to have a potent allegorical meaning, representing Eros's, i.e. love's, torturous treatment of the soul (V. Platt, p. 94).