Neptune and Triton (Bernini)

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Neptune and Triton is an early sculpture by the 17th century Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London dated c 1620-22, carved from marble it stands 182 cm in height^[1].

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 Mount Esquilinus in Rome. It was purchased by an Englishman called Thomas Jenkins in 1786, from whom it was purchased later that year by the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. After Reynolds death in 1792 it was sold to Charles Pelham first Lord Yarborough, 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.

The subject comes from Virgil's Aeneid. Neptune is calming the sea to ensure the safe passage for Aeneas. Triton, Neptune's son gives a signal with his conch-shell. Originally this was a fountain and water billowed from his horn. A similar device would be used in Bernini's fountain of the Tritone for Piazza Barberini in Rome.

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