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| Artist | Gianlorenzo Bernini |
|---|---|
| Year | c. 1622–1623 |
| Type | Marble sculpture |
| Dimensions | 182.2 cm (71.7 in) |
| Location | Victoria and Albert Museum. |
"nudi maschili" Nettuno -- e Tritone -- metà uomo, metà pesce.
"Nettuno e Tritone" is an early sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
It is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London and was executed c. 1622–1623.
Carved from marble, it stands 182.2 cm (71.7 in) in height.
Originally, the sculpture was commissioned by Cardinal Peretti Montalto, serving as a fountain to decorate the pond in the garden of his Villa Peretti Montalto on the Esquiline Hill in Rome.
The sculptoric group was purchased by the Englishman Thomas Jenkins in 1786, from whom it was purchased later that year by the painter Joshua Reynolds.
After Reynolds's death in 1792 it was sold to Charles Pelham, who kept it in the garden of his home in Chelsea, London, Walpole House.
His descendants moved it in 1906 to their country house, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire.
It was bought from the family by the Museum in 1950.
Bernini’s Neptune and Triton references the mythological characters of Nettuno (or Poseidon) and his son Tritone, as rulers of the seas.
Nettuno and Tritone are deities that appear relatively briefly in classical literature.
However, their positions in the cosmos is deemed important as controllers of the earth and seas.
It is a common modern misconception to attribute Nettuno to just the seas.
However, in Greek myth Nettunno is the ruler of earth and all it possesses, just as Zeus is the ruler of the heavens and Hades is the ruler of the Underworld.
Tritone is actually the character attributed to ruler of (just) the seas.
Nettuno and Tritone are often depicted in water-like settings, holding tridents and usually driving chariots that have horses shooting out from the water.
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Bernini’s sculpture gives a slightly different representation of the duo.
The story depicted in the sculpture was that Nettuno was rescuing the fleet of Enea from the raging seas.
Although Bernini changed the interpretation of the myth, he focused more on the body language of Nettuno and Tritone than the actual story of the myth itself.
In the myth, Nettuno comes from beneath the seas to split the ships with his trident.
Bernini flipped the appearance of the scene and made Nettuno point the trident downwards instead and did not even display the ships from the fleet of Enea.
This is represented as though Nettuno is commanding from above the seas rather than beneath like the ancient myth says.
In Bernini’s sculpture, you see Nettuno towering over Tritone.
Nettuno appears to be a man in his prime (early thirties) wearing a beard and wavy locks.
Nettuno has his legs spread apart and is balancing on a large seashell that carries both Nettuno and Tritone.
Nettuno only has a large sheet covering his right shoulder and gliding in between his legs, revealing parts of the male anatomy.
The anatomy of the entire body is defined and the twisting of his torso gives him a more trimmed outline of his muscles, allowing the viewer to pay particular attention to his muscles and how they are contracted or relaxed in his state of movement.
While standing, Nettuno also holds a trident downward in motion that makes it look like he is about to thrust it at someone.
He turns his angry look towards the water, which gushes forth at his feet, imposing his command by thrusting down with his trident.
Nettuno's arms are tense, forcefully gripping it to dictate his divine power.
There is an implication of wind in the long sheet and Neptune’s hair drift backwards, giving the illusion of a natural reality.
Tritone, Nettuno’s son, is positioned below Nettuno’s legs, thrusting himself forward to blow the conch shell.
He is noticeably younger, maybe a teen-aged boy that has defined muscles as well.
He has some definition in his anatomy to make him look like someone of importance.
However Bernini reflected the realism into the young man’s appearance naturally so that he is not idealized, but rather a real person bursting forth out of the water.
Tritone blows his shell as a horn to declare that the king of the earth and oceans is approaching, again re-iterating the myth’s aspect of Nettuno’s power and history.
Tritone grasps Nettuno’s leg and ducks his left shoulder between the thighs of Nettuno.
This grasping of the thighs looks sensual and may hold some undertones to homosexuality in classical Greece or maybe even the identification of Bernini’s own sexuality.
Tritone is also conveniently placed right below the phallus of Nettuno also implying a movement of sexual behaviour.
It is also suspicious that he is displayed as a trumpeter, blowing through his horn.
At the time of Bernini, displaying acts of sensuality through art was considered to be wrong and offensive.
Homosexuality was a quiet nature that was looked down upon in Italy at this time.
Sculptures were normally presented in a promiscuous manner to portray the sensual nature of some Baroque religious art.
Bernini’s Neptune and Triton was not the only sculpture to have sexual references in relatively humble scenes.
His Ecstasy of Saint Teresa was another piece that received a lot of criticism for its sexual imagery; especially for a religious scene.
The piece dealt with visions St. Teresa was having of God and the spiritual journey she was being taken on.
Yet, the way Bernini portrayed St. Teresa made her seem as if she was in the middle of a sexual act and that the cupid’s arrow was an underlying symbol for a man’s phallus.
The intense naturalism of the figures suggests the artist’s intention to elicit an emotional response to the viewer.
Nettuno’s furrowed brow gives a sense of his fierce strength.
His stance is set in stone, solidifying his divine power.
In contrast, Tritone looks somewhat submissive while he is grabbing Nettuno’s thigh.
His face looks to be full of anxiety as if he knows that he should obey whatever Nettuno commands him to do.
Tritone's timid nature and Nettuno’s dominate presence display the reality of human emotion and brings back the point of Bernini’s plan to convey myths coming to life.
Bernini gave the audience the chance to “see” these gods in person; in movement.
This was Bernini’s first sculpture to “work where the silhouette is broken, where the climax of a transitory action is given and where the action extends beyond the physical limits.”[
The point of the sculpture is bring to face a myth or story to be true and real by its dramatic tension in the body positions and subtle hints at natural life.
He was making the myths, rumors and stories an opportunity to be true and demand its viewer to believe in its truth.
[edit] Gallery
Detail of Triton from Bernini's Neptune and Triton
Bernini's Neptune and Triton (front view)
Bernini's Neptune and Triton (side view)
[edit] References
- ^ Paul Williamson, ed. (1996). European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Victoria and Albert Museum. p. 132.
- ^ "Neptune and Triton by Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1620–2". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/berninis-neptune-and-triton/. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
- ^ Willam Collier. New Light on Bernini's Neptune and Triton. 31. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. pp. 38-440.
- ^ R. Wittkower. "Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque" (4th ed.). London: Phaidon Press.
- ^ R. Wittkower. "Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque" (4th ed.). London: Phaidon Press.
[edit] External links
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