''Sleeping Hermaphroditus'' or ''Sleeping Hermaphrodite'' (also, "The Borghese Hermaphrodite") is an ancient Roman marble sculpture depicting

Hermaphroditus In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus (; , ) was a child of Aphrodite and Hermes. According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably beautiful boy whom the naiad Salmacis attempted to rape and prayed to be united with forever. A god, in answer to her pra ...

life size; it rests on a marble mattress completed by Italian artist

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...

in 1620. The form is derived from ancient portrayals of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

and other female nudes, and from feminized Hellenistic portrayals of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

. This subject was widely repeated during the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

and in

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, given the number of versions that have survived. The sculpture was discovered at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome in 1618 and became part of the

Borghese Collection The Borghese Collection is a collection of Roman sculptures, old masters and modern art collected by the Roman Borghese family, especially Cardinal Scipione Borghese, from the 17th century on. It includes major collections of Caravaggio, Raphae ...

. It was sold to France at the end of the 18th century and is currently on display at

The Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, in Paris. The ''Sleeping Hermaphrodite'' has been described as a good early Imperial Roman copy of a bronze original by the later of the two Hellenistic sculptors named Polycles (working c. 155 BC); the original bronze was mentioned in Pliny's ''Natural History''.

History

The sculpture was discovered in 1618, unearthed in the grounds of Santa Maria della Vittoria, near the

Baths of Diocletian The Baths of Diocletian (Latin: ''Thermae Diocletiani'', Italian: ''Terme di Diocleziano'') were public baths in ancient Rome. Named after emperor Diocletian and built from AD 298 to 306, they were the largest of the imperial baths. The project w ...

and within the bounds of the ancient

Gardens of Sallust The Gardens of Sallust () was an ancient Roman estate including a landscaped pleasure garden developed by the historian Sallust in the 1st century BC. It occupied a large area in the northeastern sector of Rome, in what would become Region VI, b ...

. The discovery was likely made during the excavation of church's foundation or while planting

espalier Espalier ( or ) is the horticulture, horticultural and ancient Agriculture, agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit, by pruning and tying branches to a frame. Plants are frequently shaped in formal patt ...

s nearby. The sculpture was presented to Cardinal

Scipione Borghese Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese (; 1 September 1577 – 2 October 1633) was an Italian cardinal, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini. His legac ...

, who included the work in the Borghese Collection and commissioned the mattress.

, Scipione's protégé, was paid sixty ''

scudi The ''scudo'' (pl. ''scudi'') was the name for a number of coins used in various states in the Italian peninsula from 1551 until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from t ...

'' for making the buttoned mattress. It's likely that Scipione dedicated an entire room of the

Villa Borghese Villa Borghese is a landscape garden in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums (see Galleria Borghese) and attractions. It is the third-largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 197.7 acres), after the ones of the Villa Doria Pamphil ...

to the sculpture. The sculpture was among the various artworks purchased by France while Rome was part of Napoleon's

First French Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

. It was sold by prince Camillo Borghese in 1807, who was married to

Pauline Bonaparte Paula Maria Bonaparte Leclerc Borghese (, ; 20 October 1780 – 9 June 1825), better known as Pauline Bonaparte, was an imperial French princess, the first sovereign Duchess of Guastalla, and the princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano. She was th ...

, and was under significant financial strain due to the heavy taxation imposed by the French. In 1809, the sculpture was transferred to

where it is currently on display. File:BorgheseHermaphroditusLouvre-front.jpg, Front File:Sleeping Hermaphroditus with Bernini Mattress.jpg, Back File:Sleeping Hermaphroditus Louvre Ma231 face.jpg, Detail File:Louvre - Sleeping Hermaphroditus 03.jpg, Top

Ancient copies

In 1781, a second-century copy of the ''Sleeping Hermaphroditus'' was found and has taken the original's place at the

Galleria Borghese The or Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate touri ...

. In 1880, a third Roman marble variant was discovered and is now on display at the Museo Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme, part of the

National Museum of Rome The National Roman Museum (Italian: ''Museo Nazionale Romano'') is a museum, with several branches in separate buildings throughout the city of Rome, Italy. It shows exhibits from the pre- and early history of Rome, with a focus on archaeological ...

. Additional ancient copies can be found at the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...

in Florence,

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums (; ) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the best-known Roman sculptures and ...

in Vatican City, and the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

in St Petersburg. File:RecliningHermaphrodite.jpg, alt=National Museum of Rome copy, File:Ermafrodito, museo nazionale romano 01.JPG, alt=, File:Ermafrodito, museo nazionale romano 02.JPG, alt=, File:Sleeping Hermaphroditus - Palazzo Altemps - Roma.JPG, alt=,

Modern copies & inspirations

Several copies have been produced since the Renaissance, in a variety of media and scales. Among the most notable, is a full-size, bronze version ordered by

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...

for

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV (, ; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered for his patronage of the ...

. It was made by Matteo Bonuccelli in 1652 and is currently housed at the

Prado Museum The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

. The sculpture clearly influenced Velázquez's painting of the '' Rokeby Venus'', now at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

, London. Pointing to further popularity during the 17th century, there is record of

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...

purchasing a reduced-scale ivory version by François Duquesnoy in Rome around 1640. In 1639, Giovanni Francesco Susini made a reduced-scale bronze copy, one cast of which is on display at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York. Susini went on to create two additional variations of the form in bronze; a cast of one was in the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and

Pierre Bergé Pierre Vital Georges Bergé (; 14 November 1930 – 8 September 2017) was a French industrialist and patron. He co-founded the fashion label Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), and was a longtime business partner—and onetime significant other—of its ...

until sold in February 2009. In 1863,

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

wrote a poem titled "Hermaphroditus," subscribed ''Au Musée du Louvre, Mars 1863'', leaving no doubt that it was inspired by seeing the work at the Louvre. The poem was published in 1866 in Poems and Ballads, Swinburne's first collection of poems. In 2010, Barry X Ball created a life-size copy in Belgian black marble on a

Carrara marble Carrara marble, or Luna marble (''marmor lunense'') to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara ...

base. This sculpture sold at Christie's, New York, on 10 May 2016 for $545,000.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny (1981). ''Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1600-1900''. New Haven: Yale University Press. * * * * * Robertson, Martin (1975).''A History of Greek Art, vol. I:551-52'', New York: Cambridge University Press. * *

External links

''Sleeping Hermaphroditos'' , Louvre Museum - Statue information

The first copy, Louvre catalogue page

{{Louvre Museum Borghese antiquities Antiquities acquired by Napoleon Hellenistic-style Roman sculptures Archaeological discoveries in Italy Sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini Marble sculptures in France Statues in France Nude sculptures in France LGBTQ art Intersex-related works Intersex topics in religion and mythology