Greek Gold Eros Earrings

Large D-shaped curved panel with female bust including detailed hairstyling. 194 grams, 13 cm



Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.

Possibly depicting Ganymede or Paris, wearing a soft Phrygian cap with everted brim, the hair swept back from the face; almond-shaped eyes with pronounced eyelids, straight nose and fleshy lips; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 1.2 kg total, 25.3 cm high including stand



Acquired early 20th century. From the collection of Count Henri d'Epinay (1940-2017), Longuenesse, France. Accompanied by a copy of a French cultural passport no.196149. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11824-207736.

The terracotta sculpture appears to have similarities with other Tarentine heads from the early Hellenistic Period. A marble head from Taranto, datable to the end of the 4th century B.C., presents similar elements. The visible character is clearly attributable to Graeco-Roman mythology. The only clue regarding the identity of the head is provided by the Phrygian cap, which narrows down the identification to few characters from Greek mythology: the Trojan prince Ganymede, abducted by Zeus for his beauty and named by him the cupbearer of the gods, or the Trojan prince Paris. There are many representations of Ganymede in a Phrygian cap (Hakanen, 2022, plates 6,12a). However, the third possibility is that the sculpture represents Attis, lover of the goddess Cybele.

From a kylix, the inside painted with two young naked athletes within a medallion, conversing and cleaning their bodies with a strigil, the edge of the medallion decorated with a series of meanders and four crosses; the outside with two naked athletes and other figures, divided by foliage ornaments and volutes. 121 grams, 15.2 cm



Acquired in before 2005. Private collection, Europe. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11805-206818.

The Euaion painter was a prolific artist of about 460 B.C. His painting - already in the manneristic period of the Attic red figures vases - was more nearly classical in style, although the ancestry of his small-headed, slim figures, is very evident. He introduced a high, sometimes patterned ground line for an upright two-figure group, and preferred the old elaborately patterned borders for tondos and the ground lines outside cups.