Cupid (Michelangelo)
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Michelangelo created two sculptures of Cupid, the first of which was a forgery designed to look like an antique sculpture, through which he first came to the attention of patrons in Rome. Both works are now lost.
[edit] Sleeping Cupid
In 1496, Michelangelo made a sleeping Cupid figure and treated it with sour earth to make it seem ancient. He then sold it to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio, who later learned of the fraud and demanded his money back. However, Michelangelo somehow managed to keep his money.
The importance of the cupid is that it directed attention to Michelangelo's talents at sculpting for the first time. The sculpture was later donated by Cesare Borgia to Isabella d'Este, and later it was probably collected by Charles I of England when all the Gonzaga collections were bought and taken to London in the seventeenth century.
In 1698 it was probably destroyed in the great fire in the Palace of Whitehall, London.
[edit] Standing Cupid
A later sculpture, of Cupid in a standing position, was executed for Riario's banker Jacopo Gallo.
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