Chapps Profile picture
Mar 24 12 tweets 11 min read
My new digital restoration is this remarkable 2nd c. AD #sculpture of #Eros (Cupid) on a dolphin, approximating how it might have once appeared in the garden of an ancient Roman villa. But who’s captured who here? #polychromy #art #archaeology #romanhistory @MANNapoli 1/ Image
The statue is on display at the Nat'l Archaeological Museum in Naples, but I can’t find information on its history or find spot. Once apparently part of the #Farnese Collection, a copy of a bronze #Greek original. 📸@MumblerJamie and Darren Puttoc. 2/ ImageImage
A few close-ups reveal that the head is likely modern - probably 18th c. (?), and quite good - but everything else, aside from a couple of fingers, appear to be ancient. The modern curls are very Botticelli-esque! 3/ ImageImageImage
One problem: how would the Romans have painted a dolphin? Examples from all over the empire show little agreement in color (other than red flukes/fins), so I used a range of mosaics and frescoes to inform my choices. 4/ ImageImageImageImage
I’m particularly pleased with the eye (major reconstruction job), which is based on Roman dolphin representations, but also Roman fish mosaics (mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii) and assorted sea beasts and monsters. He would scare the heck out of me in the ocean! 5/ ImageImageImage
Why is Eros riding a dolphin? The symbolism goes back to ancient Greece, where young men, Naiads and even hoplites were depicted riding dolphins. Coins of ancient Tarentum showed its mythical founder - Taras - riding the dolphin that saved him from drowning. 6/ ImageImageImage
Eros riding a dolphin makes a sort of sense. His mother Aphrodite was born from the sea. The symbolism - particularly in the Roman versions - has also been read as love (Eros) being a wild ride, etc. Lekythos c. 480 BC, Princeton Art Mus.; #Pompeii fresco pic by Klaus Hees. 7/ ImageImageImage
But the most potently symbolic representation of Eros on a dolphin is part of the Prima Porta Augustus. The head of the child Eros is a Julio-Claudian portrait (Gaius?), and his presence stresses the mythical descent of the Julii from Aphrodite through Aeneas. 8/ ImageImage
But many representations of Eros on a dolphin were merely decorative in the Roman empire. The 2nd-3d c. sculpture below looks like Eros is on a dolphin hobby horse! (#HermitageMuseum) And a decorative bronze mirror case alludes to erotic love. (#MFABoston) 9/ ImageImage
Around 1900, a couple of bronze reproductions of our fountain statue were cast by the Chiurazzi Foundry in Naples. One is in the garden of the Achilleion palace in Corfu (📸 Tasoskessaris). The other is in the Astor Library at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. 10/ ImageImage
Our fountain is certainly striking, because Eros both captures the wild dolphin and is captured in turn by its snaky body. Perhaps an allegory about the uncontrollable nature of love? So here I'll leave it, with an image that shows the three stages of digital restoration. 11/ Image
For the few who actually saw this thread, a little extra. A #3D printable version of this sculpture! If only I had a 3D printer ... myminifactory.com/object/3d-prin… Image

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More from @chapps

Apr 6
The emperor is dead *and* immortal! And a blonde. My newest digital restoration is Augustus as Jupiter, the king of the gods. A melding of Roman realism with Greek Classicism. A lot to unpack here … #polychromy #archaeology #art 1/ ImageImage
The statue was unearthed in Cumae, a wealthy Roman city near Naples, once a Greek colony and home to the prophesying sybil. The restorers were able to use ancient coins and cameos depicting the Olympian #Zeus and Augustus as Jupiter to guide their reconstruction work ... 2/ ImageImage
Coins like the one below, depicting Augustus as Jupiter Terminus, holding a winged thunderbolt and Victoria. The goddess is also shows up on the reverse of the coin that Augustus minted after the battle of Actium: Victoria on a globe, holding a wreath. 3/ ImageImage
Read 11 tweets
Jan 15
What a party outfit! This new speculative digital restoration is the Roman god #Mithras, from a 2nd c. AD Roman sculpture in the British Museum. I’ve used the fresco from the #Mithraeum in Capua as the inspiration for Mithras’ pseudo-Persian outfit. 1/ #tauroctony
The challenge was to interpret and render the colors and designs from the fresco in the #Mithraeum of S. Maria Capua Vetere onto the cult statue of #Mithras. The legging symbols: stars and planets, or rosettes and crowns? 2/
This sculpture is like many others from antiquity - it's had a restoration (19th c.). From documentation, I've been able to create this visual guide to the modern additions. That's why the head isn't *quite* right. Also, he looks too much like the boyish Ganymede. 3/
Read 15 tweets
Dec 9, 2021
Finally finished! A speculative reconstruction of the 1st c. AD funerary altar of the child Julia Victorina. Beautiful Ionic decorative scheme, with very specific spring flowers. So specific that I think they must have been individually colored. #polychromy #Louvre 1/
The funerary inscription is fairly standard, if not heartbreaking. Julia lived to the age of 10 years and 5 months, and is described as 'sweetest daughter'. My attempt at a translation, below. The letters get wonky on the bottom line! #epigraphy @abby_fecit @Caroline_Barron 2/
Julia's parents were Caius Julius Saturninus and Lucilia Procula. Julia Victorina inherited her name from her father, using the proper name of women born into the gens (family) Julia, the same ancient patrician family as Julius Caesar. 3/
Read 16 tweets

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