Plate 5: Neptune standing in a niche holding a trident, with a hippocampus (sea-horse) behind him, from a series of gods and goddesses
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 8 3/16 x 4 3/16 in. (20.8 x 10.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Harry G. Friedman, 1962
Accession Number
62.635.950
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant world of Renaissance printmaking, *Plate 5: Neptune in a niche holding a trident, with a hippocampus (sea-horse) behind him* stands out as a masterful engraving from 1526. Created by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio after designs by the Mannerist painter Rosso Fiorentino, this work is part of a celebrated series depicting gods and goddesses. Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, commands the composition from within an architectural niche, his trident raised assertively while a mythical hippocampus—a winged sea horse—curls dynamically behind him, evoking the grandeur of classical mythology....
About the Artist
Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio|Rosso Fiorentino · 1500–1565
Italian, Parma or Verona ca. 1500/1505–1565 Krakow (?)