This bronze group of the infant Cupid astride a Centaur is a reduced version of a Greek marble sculpture of the third or second century BC (now in Musée du Louvre, Paris) which was rediscovered circa 1600 and placed in Villa Borghese, Rome. The group symbolises the torments of love. Cupid, who is wingless in this version, is represented pulling the hair of the centaur.

The bronze is set on an oval base cast in relief with a lizard, snake, rocks and plants, mounted on an ebonised wood stand.

The ancient prototype of the same statue, now in the Louvre, was bought by Napoleon from his brother-in-law.