The Erotes, the winged gods who formed the retinue of Aphrodite, became a popular figure in the world of theatre and mime, which trickled down into the manufacture of terracotta statuettes. In the Hellenistic era, the representation of caricature or the grotesque became increasingly popular, not just in the theatre, but also in small-scale terracottas. Here the body of the erote is more a sight of satire and farce than it is love and music.
All Greek sculpture was originally produced in polychrome, and the traces of original pigmentation still visible on this terracotta figure provide insight into how Greek statuary might once have been decorated.