CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.

The pose of Cupid moving to the left but looking back finds a parallel on a sarcophagus in Rome at the Palazzo dei Conservatori (see no. 286 in G. Koch and H. Sichtermann, Römische Sarkophage). The present example also preserves part of Cupid’s bow with a distinctive zoomorphic upper terminal. This fragment was formerly part of the personal collection of Hans and Ines Jucker, the archeologists best known for their numerous academic studies on public and private collections of ancient art in Switzerland, including the Pestalozzi collection selling at Christie's on 28 October 2019.