Abstract

This paper focuses on the discussed iconography of some heads of crying children, attributed to the Dutch sculptor Hendrick de Keyser and interpreted as the infant Hercules strangling serpents in his cradle or as studies of character types. To the pieces so far known is added here a new one, still unpublished, kept in the Museo di Antichit. in Turin. The comparison to a Roman statuette of punished Eros, restored in the XVIIth century with a head of a crying boy close to the manner of de Keyser, suggests a new interpretation of the subject, inspired by the ancient iconography of punished Eros, with both hands bound behind his back.