Sleeping Hermaphroditus

The world-famous sculpture Sleeping Hermaphroditus is on display at the Rijksmuseum, as part of the exhibition Metamorphoses . The work comes from the collection of the Musée du Louvre and is rarely loaned. Its presentation in the Netherlands therefore makes this a particularly special occasion.

The marble figure is a Roman sculpture from the 2nd century AD and was excavated in 1618. In the early 17th century, the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini added a new element to the ancient work: a marble mattress and pillow. This intervention gives the sculpture a striking sense of realism, as the stone appears to soften and sink under the weight of the body.

The sculpture refers to a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses , in which the figures Salmacis and Hermaphroditus merge into a single body.