The Eirene and Ploutos statue is a Roman copy of a Greek original by which sculptor?

The Eirene and Ploutos statue is a Roman copy of a Greek original by Cephisodotus the Elder. The lost Greek work showed Eirene, the personification of Peace, holding the infant Ploutos, the personification of Wealth.

The original was a bronze statue commissioned by Athens after its naval victory over Sparta in 375 BCE and associated with the Common Peace established after 371 BCE. Ancient writer Pausanias attributed the statue to Cephisodotus. The sculptor may have been the father or another close relative of Praxiteles, although that family relationship is not certain.

The composition carried a political message: peace protects and nurtures prosperity. The surviving Roman marble copy in Munich’s Glyptothek preserves Eirene’s maternal pose, while her original sceptre is missing. It is often confused with works by Praxiteles or Cephisodotus the Younger, but those are different sculptors. Eirene was later associated with the Roman goddess Pax.