Italian, 19th century

The present model derives from a remarkable 2^nd-century A.D. Roman group which was once part of the famous Farnese collection, and is now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples (inv. no. 6375). It is an extravagant reinterpretation of the popular Roman sculptural motif of Eros riding a dolphin, known from examples in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (inv. no. ГР-1699) and the British Museum (inv. no. 1756,1010.382), among others. In the late 19^th- or early 20^th-century, a number of bronze versions of the present model were cast by Neopolitan founders the Chiurazzi. One is outside the Achilleion palace in Corfu, another in the Astor Library at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida.