Statue of Cupid and Psyche
Place found:
Culture: Roman
Date: ca. 117-138 A.D.
Medium: Marble
Dimensions:
height: 43 3/16 in. (109.7 cm)
width: 25 in. (63.5 cm)
depth: 21 7/8 in. (55.5 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Object number: 86.134.118
Provenance: excavated by Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798) at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, 1769; sold by Gavin Hamilton to William Petty-Fitzmaurice, second earl of Shelburne, first marquess of Lansdowne, (1737-1805), London, 1771; acquired from the estate of William Petty-Fitzmaurice by John Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, second marquess of Lansdowne (1765-1809), London; by inheritance to Mary Arabella Petty, marchioness of Lansdowne (d. 1833) London, 1809; sold by Mary Arabella Petty to Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, third marquess of Lansdown (1780-1863), London, 1810; by inheritance to Henry Thomas Petty Fitzmaurice, fourth marquess of Lansdowne (1816-1866), London, 1863; by inheritance to Henry Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice, fifth marquess of Lansdowne (1845-1927), London, 1866; by inheritance to Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, sixth marquess of Lansdowne (1872-1936) Wiltshire, 1927; Christie's, London, March 5, 1930, lot 29 (unsold); by inheritance to Charles Hope Petty-Fitzmaurice, seventh marquess of Lansdowne (1917-1944), Wiltshire, 1936; by inheritance to George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-Fitzmaurice, eighth marquess of Lansdowne (1912-1999), Wiltshire, 1944; sold, Sotheby's, London, December 4, 1972, lot 117 to Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. (1921-2004), San Antonio; Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1986
Published References
J. Dallaway, Anecdotes of the Arts in England (1800), 342f., 368 no. 21
O. Müller, "Nachrichten über einige Antiken-Sammlungen in England," in Kunstarchaeologische Werke (Berlin, 1825), 2:77-78
F. Clarac, Musée de Sculpture antique et moderne (1841), iv, 158, no. 1501a, pl. 653.
A. Michaelis, "Die Sammlung Lansdowne in London," Archäologischer Anzeiger (1862) 338-39.
A. Michaelis, "Die Privatsammlungen antiker Bildwerke in England," Archäologische Zeitung 32 (1874) 38, no. 43.
M. Collignon, Essai sur les monuments grecs et romains relatifs au mythe de Psyché (1877) 377, no. 25.
L. Stephanie, CRPétersbourg 1877 (1880) 182.
A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882), 452-457, no. 70.
A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of the Ancient Marbles at Lansdowne House (London: Woodfall & Kinder, 1889), 32-33, no. 70, 80.
H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Ergänzungsheft 3 (Berlin, 1895), 161.
P. Gusman, La villa imperiale de Tibur (Villa Hadriana) (Paris, 1904), 294-295, fig. 525
S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, 361, no. 1.
Lippold, Photographische Einzelaufnahmen, EA.4914.
W. Klein, Vom antiken Rokoko (1921), 36
Christie's, The Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles in the Property of the Most Hon. the Marquess of Lansdowne (London, 5 March 1930), lot 29.
G. Lippold, Handbuch der Archäologie im Rahmen des Handbuchs der Altertumswissenschaft (1950), 313, n. 10.
C. C. Vermeule, "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain," American Journal of Archaeology 59 (1955) 131
J. Marcadé, "Un torse antique de Psyché, en marbre, au Musée Bonnat de Bayonne," Revue archéologique (1968) 218ff., fig. 3
A. Orlandi, "Sarcofago di palazzo Mattei con le tre Grazie ed Eros e Psyche," Archeologia classica 24 (1972) 37ff.
Sotheby's, London, Dec. 4, 1972, lot 117.
J. Raeder, Die statuarische Ausstattung der Villa Hadriana bei Tivoli (Frankfurt and Bern: Peter Lang, 1983), 43-44, no. I18.
M. Aspris, Statuarische Gruppen von Eros und Psyche, Ph.D. thesis, (University of Bonn, 1996), 71-87, no. B1, figs. 41-45.
R. R. Brettell & C. D. Dickerson, III, From the Private Collections of Texas: European Art, Ancient to Modern (Fort Worth, 2009), 102.
G. W. Goudchaux, "Le bronze Peytel du Louvre," Numismatica e Antichità Classiche. Quaderni Ticinesi 38 (2009) 169-70, fig. 8.
I. Bignamini & C. Hornsby, Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome (New Haven and London, 2010), 1:162-163, 2:21-23, 32, 207.
B. Cassidy, The Life & Letters of Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798), Artist and Art Dealer in Eighteenth-Century Rome (London: Harvey Miller, 2011), 1:52, letters 48-52, 56, 61, 63, 90, 92, 96, 98, 104, 148, 161, 194, fig. 25.
Sotheby's, New York, June 8, 2011, p. 62, 66
M. G. Bernardini, ed., La favola di Amore e Psiche: Il mito nell'arte dall'antichità a Canova (Rome, 2012), 28
Sotheby's, London, June 12, 2017, p. 102
E. Angelicoussis, Reconstructing the Lansdowne Collection of Classical Marbles (Munich: Hirmer, 2017), 2:150-155, no. 19.
A. Storm-Rusche, "Psyche: Zu schön, um wahr zu sein? Theodor Storm und die Antike," Mitteilungen aus dem Storm-Haus (2024) 30-33.
Label Text
Cupid, the son of Venus, was the Roman god associated with love, desire, and sexuality. Here he embraces his consort, Psyche. This statue once decorated the villa of the emperor Hadrian near Tivoli, east of Rome, and was discovered by the Scottish antiquarian and art dealer Gavin Hamilton in 1769. The statue was extensively restored after its discovery. Hamilton sold it for £300 to the Marquess of Lansdowne for his collection in London. This statue was displayed in the sculpture gallery in Lansdowne House along with the Marcus Aurelius that is also now in SAMA’s collection. (Jessica Powers, 2008)
On view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
