Five battling tritons, from "The Triton Group"
ca. 1660–61
Medium
Etching with drypoint
Dimensions
sheet: 3 3/4 x 8 1/8 in. (9.5 x 20.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.300.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the turbulent seascape of *Five Battling Tritons, fromThe Triton Group"*, Salvator Rosa captures a frenzy of mythological mayhem around 1660–61. These half-man, half-fish sea deities—sons of Poseidon in Greek lore—clash with muscular vigor, their twisting bodies evoking the wild power of the ocean. Rosa, a leading 17th-century Italian Baroque artist (1615–1673), infused his works with dramatic energy, drawing from his dramatic landscapes and battle scenes to create prints that pulse with movement and emotion. Crafted as an etching with drypoint, this intimate sheet (3 3/4 x 8 1/8 in.) show...
About the Artist
Salvator Rosa · 1615–1673
Salvator Rosa was born in 1615 in Arenella, on the outskirts of Naples, into a world of artistic ambition and turbulent talent. His early training came through his maternal uncle, the painter Paolo Greco, and his brother-in-law Francesco Fracanzano, himself a pupil of the great Spanish-born Neapolitan master Jusepe de Ribera. Rosa showed a fierce independence from the start, resisting his father's...