A Roman marble statue of Aphrodite and Eros, circa 2nd-3rd Century A.D. Estimate £100,000 - 120,000 (€140,000 - 160,000). Photo: Bonhams.

The goddess depicted nude with sensuous curves, standing with her left leg crossed in front of her right, her left arm resting on a pillar with drapery, offering a pomegranate in her right hand to Eros who stands to her left, the child-like god reaching up with both hands to grasp the fruit, the goddess with her hair arranged in a chignon, looking down at her son, his head a mass of curly locks, tipped back to look up at his mother, both with drilled eyes, standing on an integral oval base with a dolphin entwined with their legs,61cm high 

Provenance: Swedish private collection, Stockholm, acquired circa 1980.
With Max Willborg, Stockholm, 1970s. 
Collection of Professor Axel Boëthius (1889-1969), head of the Swedish Institute in Rome 1925-1934.

Literature: Axel Boëthius (July 18, 1889 – May 7, 1969) was appointed as the first director of the Swedish Institute at Rome in 1925 and was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg from 1934-1955. His publications include, The Golden House of Nero: some Aspects of Roman Architecture, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1960; and with J.B. Ward-Perkins, Etruscan and Roman Architecture, Pelican History of Art 32, Baltimore, 1970. 

Notes: The depiction of Aphrodite with a dolphin has its origins in Hellenistic art and Aphrodite's incarnation as Aphrodite Euploia (Fair Voyage), the protector of seafarers. There is a related statuette in the Liverpool Museum, UK, (acc. no. 1959.148.036): cf. A. Delivorrias, 'Aphrodite', Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae, II, Zurich, 1984, no. 599.

The goddess's crossed-leg stance is in the 'mannerist' style developed in Classical Greek sculpture from the late 5th Century onwards. For the general type of Aphrodite leaning on a support, usually draped however, cf. A. Delivorrias,LIMC, II, pp. 29-33, nos. 185-224.

BONHAM'S. ANTIQUITIES, 16 Apr 2015 10:30 BST - LONDON, NEW BOND STREET