Cupid Bound

Artist Richard Greenough (American, 1819–1904)

Date1863

Mediummarble group

Dimensions74.3 x 60.3 x 38.1 cm (29 1/4 x 23 3/4 x 15 in.)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of David Richardson

Terms

marble

Object number1999.514

Label TextThe whimsical combination of an imprisoned Cupid, god of love, on the back of a slow-moving tortoise suggests the frustrations of thwarted passion and the delays that time and the universe can throw in the way of love’s fulfillment. Inspired by his older brother Horatio Greenough, one of the first American sculptors to work in Rome, Richard Greenough abandoned a career in business to pursue art. Although dogged by ill health in his first attempt at foreign study, he eventually spent several periods of long residency in Rome and Paris, besides his native Boston. All of his works, whether commissioned portrait busts or mythological subjects such as this one, were marked by a strong Classical influence, testifying to the continuing importance of Greek and Roman art on the nineteenth-century artistic imagination. ProvenanceB. Manheim, New Orleans; David Richardson, Washington, D.C.

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