Neptune

This Neptune bronze is adapted from a marble statue of Neptune and Triton carved by Bernini for the Villa Montalto in Rome (1621-3), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (A.18:1-1950).

The group was commissioned from the great Italian sculptor Bernini by Alessandro Peretti, Cardinal Montalto, for the garden of the Villa Montalto in Rome. The work received widespread critical acclaim and was one of the most celebrated sights in the Eternal City during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It remained in the Montalto garden until 1786, when it was sold to the British art dealer, Thomas Jenkins.

In classical mythology Neptune ruled over the seas and its inhabitants. His son Triton was half man, half fish (a merman).