Metropolitan Museum of Art presents Sleeping Eros, an exhibition on view January 29–June 23, 2013.
The exhibition focuses on the Museum’s statue of Sleeping Eros, one of the finest of the few surviving ancient bronze statues from antiquity. It will explore a number of topics associated with this work, including the issue of originals and copies in Greek and Roman sculpture, new research that suggests it is a Hellenistic bronze that was restored in antiquity, and its original function and ancient context. The exhibition will also present the cult and image of Eros before and after the development of the Sleeping Eros statue type to show its enormous influence as well as to trace the wide dispersal of the type in Roman times and its subsequent rediscovery during the Renaissance. Some forty-five works will be displayed, primarily from the Museum’s collection. – www.metmuseum.org