After Michel Anguier | Nach Michel Anguier

This dynamic marble represents the sea god Neptune standing on a hippocamp, directing the oceans. The model was created by the celebrated French sculptor Michel Anguier and owes a debt to Bernini's masterpiece Neptune and Triton, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. A.18:1-1950). The model was part of a series of six bronzes of classical gods and goddesses that were commissioned by Monsieur Montarsis upon Anguier’s return to Paris from Rome in 1652. Anguier associated each deity with a temperament, Neptune was originally titled Neptune Agité (Agitated Neptune). The god of the ocean was paired with the figure with Amphitrite, who as a pair represented the element of water.

Anguier’s Neptune exists in various collections in two sizes. The larger model (52cm. high) is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London among other collections. Smaller versions (24cm. high) exist in the Baltimore Museum of Art and the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Bresc-Bautier, G., Scherf, and J. D Draper, Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat. Louvre Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, 2009, pp. 204-209