Eros e la Musa Erato. Marmo bianco. Arte neoclassica... Lot n° 31

The evocative and imposing marble group depicts the Muse Erato, inspirer of choral singing and love poetry, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, wrapped in a long peplum while, resting her lyre on her knee, she envelops a young Eros in an accomplice and confiding embrace, touching his cheeks with the gentle recline of her face as if to seal the intrinsic bond that unites their actions, The Muse, who owes the very origin of her name to Eros, has been depicted and portrayed in various ways in the art of the past centuries as can be seen in the Roman copy (photo 1) taken from a Greek original, datable to between 120 and 130 AD, The cycle, which passed into the hands of the Farnese family, was finally ceded in 1681 by Rinuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, to Queen Christina of Sweden, who entrusted the restoration and additions to the Florentine sculptor Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (1656-1740) and is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, Our important work, masterfully executed in the manner of mature neoclassicism in the first decades of the 19th century, appears to be made from a single block of white marble whose whiteness is further enhanced by careful cleaning of the surfaces from dust and sediment deposited by time and is devoid of inscriptions, It has no inscriptions, signatures or dates to help identify its capable, but hitherto unknown, author, who was probably part of the large colony of sculptors from France, Germany, England or other European countries who stayed in Italy to learn and compare themselves with the style, models and works of Canova's Neoclassicism., , Base of later date, H. 120 cm, Iotti Antichità, Reggio Emilia, The work was exhibited at the Biennale Antiquaria at Palazzo Corsini in Florence in 2013.