Casgliadau Arlein

The object comprises the small leg of a chubby figure appropriate to a Cupid. The surface of the leg is quite severly damaged and the detailed modelling is obscured but grooved lines are still visible on the left hand side of the upper part of the thigh and may have been intended to represent some rough form of dress, for example, an animal skin. Aove the knee, the front of the leg terminates in a flat facet although the sides of the thigh are modelled. Behind the facet is a small notch and at the back of the thigh and heel are slight ridges. The leg is unlikely to have been part of a bronze statuette which would almost certainly have been cast in one piece and not composed of separate elements fitted together; the Usk peice shows no sign of damage such as would have occurred if the limb had been torn or broken from a complete statuette. The flat facet, notch and ridges seem to imply that the leg formed an ornamental terminal to support some object. If the flat facet was positioned horizontally the leg and foot would project diagonally to form one element of a raised base, perhaps for a candlebrum, or in view of its small size, more probably a candlestick. The use of the model of the human, or Cupid, leg to from the feet of the candelabra is known from Pompeii and has long antecedents in Etruscan bronze work. The subject is fully discussed by Pernice who states that this type of foot was in use for candelabra from as early as the third century BC.