An Etruscan Bronze Applique, circa 1st half of the 5th Century B.C.

cast in high relief in the form of of a triton or merman, the head cast in the round, his left hand resting on his tail, his right hand on the fallen body of a warrior, the sea monster with finely striated spade-shaped beard, long moustache, and long striated hair flowing back above the ears and flaring out onto the shoulders, the warrior wearing greaves, corslet, and domed helmet.

J.J. Klejman, New York, acquired by him before 1974

Similar appliques are in the Villa Giulia, inv. no. 51433 (G. Camporeale, "Tritones [in Etruria]," LIMC, vol. VIII.1, Zurich, 1997, p. 88, no. 73), the Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Dresden, inv. no.  ZV 30.12 (Welt der Etrusker, B 7.67, pp. 201-202), and the Archaeological Museum in Florence, where it is still attached to a helmet (W. Helbig, Annali dell’Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, 1874, p. 46, pl. K). For a related example showing a triton holding his bifurcated tail in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. G.R. 43, see Richter, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes, pp. 31-32, no. 49 (K. Shepard, The Fish-tailed Monster in Greek and Etruscan Art, New York, 1940, pl. VI, no. 43, and M. Boosen, Etruskische Meeresmischwesen: Untersuchungen zu Typologie und Bedeutung, Rome, 1986, p. 96, V.1).