A rare complete statue of a sleeping Cupid has been unearthed in Pula, Croatia. Made of fine-grained white marble, it dates to the 2nd century A.D. and its exceptional quality and condition make one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in Pula.
The sculpture was discovered last week on Castropola Street in the historic center of the city. It was found inside a room of an ancient domus. The room had collapsed, but archaeologists found huge amounts of marble pieces, and the remains of wall and ceiling frescoes decorated in polychrome paint. The room’s purpose is still being studied.
The sculpture found in the collapse layer is 98 cm (38.6 inches) long, 44 cm (17.3 inches) wide and 30 cm (11.8 inches) high at its highest point. It depicts Cupid as a nude winged boy on his side sleeping on a lion skin, his head resting on the lion’s head. This is a reference to the story of Cupid stealing Hercules’ Nemean lion skin, a metaphor for how desire can conquer strength. A small lizard is splayed out next to the sleeping deity, his two left legs touching the edge of the lion skin.
Sleeping Cupid sculptures were popular in Roman art, found in homes as garden ornaments or fountains and on tombs and altars as funerary monuments, particularly for children’s graves. There are about 200 marble sleeping Cupid sculptures similar to this one known. Only about 25 of them include lizards, an animal that symbolizes regeneration and new life.
There is some damage to the piece, likely suffered in antiquity: one of the wings is broken off Cupid’s back and there’s a crack in the oval base that run diagonally from edge near Cupid’s knee clean through to the lion skin’s foot on the other side. It is slightly blackened, a result of an ancient fire at the domus.
Cupid is now being laser cleaned, documented and studied. When conservation is complete and the damage repaired, the statue will go on display as a permanent part of the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula.
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