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Dossier : Éros en jeu

Dossier : Éros en jeu

Eros as a Globetrotter

Jeux d’esprit on a Sardonyx Gem in Xanten

Éros globe-trotter. Jeux d’esprit sur une intaille en sardonyx de Xanten

Viktoria Räuchle

Abstract

A sardonyx gem in Xanten (1st cent. BC) shows a young, winged Eros balancing on a globe, his hands tied behind his back, while an ageing man in the thinker pose is watching him. The piece combines various established motives and image types into a new and surprisingly innovative composition and thus presents a prime example for the iconographic and formal eclecticism of early Imperial imagery. This paper analyzes the single elements in their typological and iconographic tradition and interprets them against the background of contemporary discourses on love. The study is part of a larger book project, which investigates the motif of the Eros Bound as a multi-faceted allegory for erotic desire and its manifold ordeals.

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Estratto del testo

A private collection in Xanten houses a peculiar sardonyx gem which combines various established motives and image types into a new and surprisingly innovative composition. The highly-polished engraving on the circular, flat surface shows a young, winged Eros balancing on a globe, his hands tied behind his back, while an ageing man in the thinker pose is watching him from a chair (fig. 1).1 The object thus confronts the beholder with a sophisticated play of opposites: young versus old, dynamic versus static, impairment versus mobility. The piece has been dated to the late 1st century BC on the basis of stylistic criteria,2 and presents a prime example for the iconographic and formal eclecticism of the time.3 This paper develops possible interpretations of the scene through a careful iconographic analysis of the single visual codes and their contextualization within contemporary discourses of love.

Fig. 1: Sardonyx

Image

Xanten, private collection.

After Platz-Horster 1994, pl. 53, no 275.

The...

Autore

LMU Munich

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