Sleeping Hermaphrodite

Sleeping Hermaphroditus Hermaphroditus is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Aphrodite and Hermes. He was a beautiful young man who did not reciprocate the love of the naiad Salmacis. She begged the gods to forever unite their bodies. In art, Hermaphroditus was depicted as a beautiful young man with female characteristics but with a male member. The Łańcut marble statuette of Hermaphroditus is a miniature copy of the ancient Roman marble statue of the "Sleeping Hermaphroditus" (length: 147 cm) from the 1st or 2nd c., housed in the Louvre. It is modelled after a Greek bronze statue from the 2nd c. BCE attributed to Polycles. The statue was discovered before 1620 in Rome, near the Baths of Diocletian, in the Santa Maria Della Vittoria gardens. It belonged to the antiques collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Exhibited at the Villa Borghese in Rome, it was one of the most admired sculptures there. The work was copied in modern times, most often smaller in size, in marble and bronze. The statuette depicts the naked, slender figure of Hermaphroditus lying in bed, with his hands on the pillow. The arrangement of the figure's body reveals its dual sexuality: in the front, the right breast is visible and in the back, the erect phallus. The sculpture is set on a wooden, gilded base in the shape of a rectangular table on four bent legs. The statuette was made in the fourth quarter of the 18th c. Its author is not known; it was likely an Italian sculptor. It comes from the collection of Princess Izabela Lubomirska (1736-1816), the owner of the Łańcut Castle. It is displayed in the bathroom in the Men's Apartment, on the mantel. Barbara Trojnar