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Mirror with Cupids and Silenus punishing a nude female
Roman
Imperial Period
2nd century A.D.
Medium/Technique
Gilt bronze
Dimensions
Other: 10.6 x 0.6 cm (4 3/16 x 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
William E. Nickerson Fund
Accession Number1986.750
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsTools and equipment – Cosmetic and medical
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), no. 095.
DescriptionMirror and cover with a representation of a punishment scene, possibly of Venus by cupids and Silenus. A woman with legs and buttocks bared is laid out on a bed and is held down by two winged cupids. A male figure with a balding head, beard, and exposed belly, who resembles Silenus, is about to whip her. On the right side, a winged cupid stands on a stool and holds up a titulus (a placard like those used for prisoners condemned to die in the amphitheater) and writes on it with a stylus, perhaps keeping track of the number of blows. Mounted above on a wall is a pinax (a framed easel painting) with a representation of a standing winged victory. A waxed tablet and stylus appear below in the exergue. Whipping might be found in Roman scenes of schoolrooms, or initiations into mystery cults, or in a scene from the festival of the Lupercalia where whipping was used to promote fertility, but the exact explanation of this scene is not known.
Large losses around the edge.
Large losses around the edge.
ProvenanceSaid to be from Asia Minor [see note 1]. By 1972, Roger Peyrefitte (b. 1907 - d. 2000), Paris [see note 2]; December 11-12, 1978, “Le Musée secret” de Roger Peyrefitte sale, H. Cahn, Paris, lot 434. By 1985, Royal-Athena Galleries, New York [see note 3]; 1986, sold by Royal-Athena Galleries to the MFA. (Accession date: December 17, 1986)
NOTES:
[1] According to an invoice from Royal-Athena Galleries.
[2] M. Haas and R. Peyrefitte, Un Musée de l’amour (1972), p. 38. Another mirror with Venus Vitrix from the same collection is now in the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. no. y1985-1; December 11-12, 1978, “Le Musée secret” de Roger Peyrefitte sale, H. Cahn, Paris, lot 435).
[3] Royal-Athena Galleries, Art of the Ancient World, vol. 4 (1985), p. 110, no. 324.
NOTES:
[1] According to an invoice from Royal-Athena Galleries.
[2] M. Haas and R. Peyrefitte, Un Musée de l’amour (1972), p. 38. Another mirror with Venus Vitrix from the same collection is now in the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. no. y1985-1; December 11-12, 1978, “Le Musée secret” de Roger Peyrefitte sale, H. Cahn, Paris, lot 435).
[3] Royal-Athena Galleries, Art of the Ancient World, vol. 4 (1985), p. 110, no. 324.