Neptune and Triton
Neptune and Triton
Published 2014-07-28T16:58:13+00:00
The group was commissioned from the leading Italian Baroque sculptor, Gianlorenzo Bernini, by Alessandro Peretti, Cardinal Montalto, for the garden of the Villa Montalto in Rome, and carved within a year in 1622-23. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the group was one of the most celebrated sights in Rome, and a number of engravings show it in its original position, standing at the upper end of the large fish-pond, known as the Peschiera or Peschierone, in the Montalto garden. This impressive group originally formed the centrepiece of a complex system of fountains and cascades. It projected a single jet of water through the conch-shell held by Triton, who was misidentified as 'Glaucus' (the fisherman who, according to mythology, turned into a merman - half man, half fish) in some engravings and references.
In classical mythology Neptune ruled over the seas and its inhabitants. His son Triton was a merman. Neptune and Triton are portrayed with great vitality as they command the seas, which we are to be imagined around the base of the group. The composition may be based on Ovid's account of the Flood (Metamorphoses, Book 1, 330-42), in which Triton is ordered by Neptune to blow his conch-shell to summon the waters to retreat. However, it is also often associated with the Quos Ego ('Whom I'), Neptune's unfinished threat to the winds to cease stirring the seas, from Virgil's Aeneid (Book 1, 135).
In classical mythology Neptune ruled over the seas and its inhabitants. His son Triton was a merman. Neptune and Triton are portrayed with great vitality as they command the seas, which we are to be imagined around the base of the group. The composition may be based on Ovid's account of the Flood (Metamorphoses, Book 1, 330-42), in which Triton is ordered by Neptune to blow his conch-shell to summon the waters to retreat. However, it is also often associated with the Quos Ego ('Whom I'), Neptune's unfinished threat to the winds to cease stirring the seas, from Virgil's Aeneid (Book 1, 135).
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Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Resolution (Layer Height): 0.15mm Infill Density: 15%
Date published | 28/07/2014 |
Time to do | 480 - 540 minutes |
Material Quantity | 48.4 g |
Dimensions | 133 X 88 X 88 mm |
Complexity | Easy |
Title | Neptune and Triton |
Date | ca. 1622-23 (sculpted) |
Dimension | Height: 182.2 cm, Weight: 842.5 kg |
Accession | A.18:1-1950 |
Period | Baroque |
Medium | Marble |
Credit | Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the Vallentin Bequest and the John West Trust Fund |
Record | http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17204/neptune-and-triton-figure-group-bernini-gian-lorenzo/ |
Artist | Gian Lorenzo Bernini |
Place | Victoria and Albert Museum, London |