Un petit bronze romain :
Eros tenant un papillon !
Je viens de faire une découverte à New York : Eros
tenant un papillon dans les bras : l’amour, et l’âme réunis, joli symbole
de l’amour pur, sublimant l’amour physique ! Je vous le laisse en anglais,
pour maintenir l'originalité de la description :
ROMAN BRONZE EROS HOLDING A BUTTERFLY
NEW YORK | SCULPTURE
DATE: 1st Century AD, 2nd Century AD
CULTURE: Roman ; CATEGORY: Sculpture ; MEDIUM: Bronze
DIMENSION: H: 8.7 cm PRICE: $11,000.00 (quand-même !) PROVENANCE: Ex - European Private Collection
While it is not unusual for Eros
to be found occasionally in the company of a butterfly on gems or pottery, the
representation of these companions in the form of a bronze statuette is rare.
Eros has wings outspread and is naked except for a rolled fillet around his
head. His face is expressive and he stands in a relaxed pose, very much like
that of a small child. His right arm is extended outward while he holds the
body of a butterfly in his left hand, its wings supported by his bent left arm.
Details of his short hair and wing feathers, as well as the wings of the
butterfly, are indicated by marks made by the coldworking of the bronze with a
punch or gravure after casting.
Objects dating to the later Roman
period, particularly sarcophagi, depict Prometheus creating man with the
assistance of Athena who holds a butterfly that represents a man’s soul.
Because the same Greek word, psyche, means both “soul” and “butterfly,” writers
in late antiquity, such as St. Basil, exploit this ambiguity as an allegory of
renewed life, following the Christian concept of resurrection. The butterfly is
also associated with procreation itself, as on a sixth century B.C. Greek
black-figure vase (Pergamon Museum, Berlin1684) that depicts a butterfly
fluttering beneath drops of semen that drip from a man’s erect penis. The
juxtaposition of semen and butterfly point to the evidence of modern European
names for this insect, which connect it to liquid that possesses nutritive
power, hence the English butter-fly or the German Molkendieb, or “whey-thief.”
Visual representations of the famous story of Cupid (the Roman version of Eros)
and Psyche, written by Apuleius in the second century A.D., often give her butterfly
wings or allude to the heroine with an image of a butterfly. Thus in this
fascinating little bronze, Eros may not be securing just an ordinary butterfly
in the protective fold of his arm, but his beloved Psyche. This concept may be
borne out by the notable second century A.D. marble sculptures of Cupid and
Psyche in Rome (Musei Capitolini) and Florence (Galleria degli Uffizzi) that
show the pair in love’s embrace.
Ce qui est amusant, c'est la représentation qui en a été faite, plus tard, par Bouguereau :
des Eros jouent avec les papillons !
 |
| on reconnait un beau Machaon en réalité, il faut voir : Eros jouant avec une âme ! |
Toujours pour vous permettre de vous y retrouver
(et moi aussi), voici :
Les papillons dans la peinture, en 24 billets
1
|
Tableau de
Berlin
|
|
2
|
La
Création
|
|
3
|
D.G
Rossetti
|
|
4
|
Alice
Wilding
|
|
5
|
J.Hoefnagel
|
|
6
|
Hetepheres
|
|
7
|
Cartier
|
|
8
|
Fossile
chinois
|
|
9
|
Lipman et
Dior
|
|
10
|
Mosaïque
Pompei
|
|
11
|
Le casino
de Murcie
|
|
12
|
Piérides
et muses
|
|
13
|
Flamands
|
|
14
|
Psyche 1
|
|
15
|
Psyche 2
|
|
16
|
porcelaine
|
|
17
|
Miss
Butterfly
|
|
18
|
Pygmalion
|
|
19
|
Psyché aux
States
|
|
20
|
US musical
comedy
|
|
21
|
Papillon
H.Charrière
|
|
22
23
|
L’âme de
Gauffier
Pompes-papillon
|
