Eros (From the Series "Land of Relics")

Oil on Canvas. Unframed 32"x43" / 80cm x 100cm

In this work from Land of Relics, Cuban artist Maikel Benítez continues his meditative fusion of classical mythology and the lived architecture of La Habana, presenting a fractured Eros standing beneath the city’s ancient arches. The broken marble figure—its head partially erased, its body worn and incomplete—occupies the passageway like a silent witness, suspended between reverence and abandonment. Framed by columns darkened by time and by light filtering through the arcade, the sculpture feels both monumental and exposed, as though love itself had been left behind in the corridors of history.

Benítez draws a subtle yet powerful parallel between Eros, god of love, and the city that surrounds him. Here, the ancient sculpture is placed within a more intimate, semi-protected space, suggesting that even as the city appears fragile and in collapse, desire and love persist within its inhabitants.

The overall feeling is one of haunted intimacy. The painting carries a profound stillness, charged with emotional residue. Even in decay, life continues—people endure, love survives—existing not in perfection, but as a resilient trace shaped by time, loss, and hope.