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A BRONZE FIGURE OF NEPTUNE CAST FROM A MODEL BY GIANLORENZO BERNINI (1598-1680), ROME, SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY The figure of Neptune holding a later trident; on a naturalistic base 21 ? in. (54.5 cm) high
Purchased by the cousin of the present owner April 1949 at Copper and Adams (?), and thence by descent.
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) is considered to be the most celebrated and influential sculptor of 17th century Europe. His innovative designs and unrivalled skill at carving marble secured the patronage of successive popes and prelates, and propelled Rome to the forefront of the artistic world. The present bronze figure of Neptune is almost certainly cast from a model the artist produced as he attempted to finalise the composition of a marble fountain that had been commissioned in the early 1620s by Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto. Previously known in only four bronze casts – three of them in museum collections – the present bronze is the fifth cast known and has emerged from a noble collection in the United Kingdom.
Bernini first trained in the workshop of his father, Pietro Bernini (1562-1629), who was himself a successful sculptor. Gianlorenzo was a prodigious talent, and is said by his biographers to be carving in marble by the age of eight. By 10 years of age he had already sculpted a group of Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Satyr. His position as the new artistic genius of the age was cemented in the years 1618-24 when he carved four marbles for Cardinal Scipione Borghese: Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius leaving Troy, Pluto and Proserpina, Apollo and Daphne, and David (all today in the Galleria Borghese, Rome). The psychological impact of these groups, along with the compositional innovation and technical brilliance left him in a virtually unrivalled position. In partnership with his great patron, the Barberini pope, Urban VIII, he would go on to transform the fabric and interior decoration of St. Peter’s basilica. His work on fountains, monuments and civic spaces are among the most recognized and important contributions to the Roman urban landscape even today.
At the same time that Bernini was executing the marbles mentioned above for Scipione Borghese, he was asked by Cardinal di Montalto to execute a fountain in marble to be placed above a large basin of water in the formal gardens of the Villa Montalto in Rome. This was executed between March 1622 and February 1623 and depicted Neptune twisting dramatically with drapery swirling out behind him in cork screw folds. He holds a trident in both hands as if to strike, and he stands astride a seashell with the figure of Triton between his legs, blowing into a conch shell from which real water would gush forth. The marble fountain remained at the villa until 1786 before being purchased by the English art dealer Thomas Jenkins. It belonged briefly to Sir Joshua Reynolds before being sold to Lord Yarborough. It was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum from Yarborough’s descendants in 1950 (inv. no. A.18:1-1950).
As mentioned above, the present bronze is the fifth known cast of a variant composition of the Montalto Neptune. The others are today in the J. Paul Getty Mueum, Los Angeles, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Corsini collection (on loan to the Galleria Borghese, Rome). They differ from the marble group in that the figure of Triton has been replaced by a dolphin and the shell on which Neptune stands in the marble has been replaced by a rocky base.
In the entry on the Getty example, Peter Fusco argues convincingly that these bronzes must have been cast from an interim model created as Bernini’s idea for the fountain evolved (Fogelman, Fusco and Camberera, loc. cit.). Bernini’s stature as a sculptor was such that his models were highly unlikely to have been altered by followers. Fusco also argu