Drawings of Cupids

These eight drawings are obviously taken from the same room not only on account of the background colour but also for the special way that the craftsman has portrayed the cupids as young boys rather than as children, and with rather longer heads. As is customary on all adjacent wall paintings, the subjects, despite certain analogies, are never identical and so here we can see a variety of poses, attitudes and attributes, though all have been portrayed in a leisurely way. The first from the left has a thyrsus and cantharus, obvious Dionysian symbols, while the second has an offertory tray, the third a syringe and a pedum, symbols of the pastoral world with special reference to the Satyrs and Pan, the fourth is carrying a small coffer containing offerings of perfume and incense, the fifth is also carrying an offertory tray and a kalathos, the sixth a cantharus, the seventh a small basket and a pedum, and the eighth a cornucopia. Bibliography: V. Sampaolo, Le pitture, in Le Collezioni del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Roma 1986, p. 154, n.224

Fonte: MANN
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