Images(6)

Neptune

ArtistAttributed to Benvenuto Cellini Italian, 1500–1571

Datecirca 1560

MediumBronze

Dimensions9 1/2 x 2 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (24.1 x 7.0 x 14.0 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Levy, Jr.

Object numberGL.57.11.2

On View

Not on view

Label Text
Statues of Neptune, god of the sea, were a favorite crowning motif on the multi-tiered fountains adorning the piazzas of numerous Italian cities in the sixteenth century. Neptune is shown nude, with windblown hair and long flowing beard, holding a three-pronged spear or trident (now missing here) and accompanied by the hippocamps (sea horse monsters) that pulled his chariot through the sea.

This statue has been tentatively proposed as Cellini’s entry in the competition to design a fountain for the main square of Florence, the Piazza della Signoria. Rendered in a rather rough, sketchy manner, the sculpture was probably cast from a rapidly executed wax model. Neptune’s pose, with one arm held close to his body and the other raised, may represent Cellini’s solution to the shape of the designated block of marble, which had been damaged at the quarry in Carara and was too narrow at the top for both arms to be raised or extended. The slender, elongated figure of Neptune, with a head that seems small in proportion to the body, is characteristic of the Mannerist style of the second half of the sixteenth century.

Cellini recounts the story of the competition, which he did not win, in his colorful and self-aggrandizing Autobiography. Cellini is remembered today for this lively account of his life more than for his work as a goldsmith and sculptor.
Published ReferencesW. R. V[alentiner], "Opening of Four New Galleries of Early Sculpture and Decorative Arts," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 1, no. 2 (Summer 1957), mentioned 22.

W. R. Valentiner, "Cellini's Neptune Model," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 1, no. 3 (Autumn 1957), discussed 5-10, illus. (b-w) 5, fig. 1, front cover, details (b-w) 9, figs. 4, 5.

Europaeische Bildwerke von der Spaetentike bis zum Rokoko (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1957).

Masterpieces of Art: In Memory of William R. Valentiner, 1880-1958 (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1959), cat. no. 18, illus. (b-w) 44, fig. 18.

Bulletin of the Walters Art Gallery 12, no. 4 (January 1960).

Keith Roberts, "Italian Bronze Statuettes in a Brilliant Exhibition," The Connoisseur (December 1961), 296.

Yvonne Hackenbroch, "The Triumph of Venice," The Connoisseur (January 1962), 18-23, illus.

"Pope-Hennessy Discusses NCMA's Cellini," North Carolina Museum of Art Calendar of Art Events (June-July 1962), discussed and illus. (b-w), unnumbered page.

Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 32, illus. (color) and detail (b-w).

Hans R. Weihrauch, Europaeische Bronzestatuetten 15.-18. Jahrhundert (Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1967), 160-61, 504.

North Carolina Architect, 20th Anniversary North Carolina Museum of Art 1947-1967 (Raleigh, NC: The North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1967) 65. Artwork included without scholarly writing.

Exhibition Number One from the Permanent Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1970), 36, illus. (color) 37.

Edgar Peters Bowron, Renaissance Bronzes in the Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore: The Walters Art Gallery, 1978), 47.

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, ed. and abridged by Charles Hope and Alessandro Nova, from the translation by John Addington Symonds (Oxford: Phaidon, 1983), illus. 200.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 191.

John Pope-Hennessy, Cellini (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), illus. 293-95, figs. 152-54.

"Book Reviews," Burlington Magazine (December 1988), 929-32, illus.

Nicholas Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540 to the Present Day, Vol. I: Italian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 316-17.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 178.

Rebecca Martin Nagy, entry for Neptune, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 129, illus. (color).

Henk Th. van Veen, Cosimo I de' Medici and his Self-Representation in Florentine Art and Culture, translated by Andrew P. McCormick (English translation - New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006; original Dutch text - Amsterdam: Meulenhoff; and Leuven: Kritak, 1998), briefly discussed 106, illus. (b-w) 108, fig. 40.

Charles Avery, "Benvenuto Cellini's Silver Statues of the Twelve Olympian Gods for Fontainebleau," in Studies in the Decorative Arts 14, no. 1 (Fall-Winter 2006-2007), discussed 16-17, illus. (b-w) 14, figs. 15 & 16.

Rebecca Martin Nagy, entry for Neptune, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 274, illus. (color) 275.

Detlef Heikamp, “La Fontana di Nettuno: La sua Storia nel Contesto Urbano,” in Bartolomeo Ammannati, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Dimitrios Zikos, eds. (exhibition catalogue) (Milan: Giunti, 2011) illus. (color) 221, fig. 38 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Masterpieces of Art: In Memory of William R. Valentiner, 1880-1958," April 6-May 17, 1959, cat. no. 18, illus. (b-w).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Exhibition Number One from the Permanent Collection," October 1970, 36, illus. (color) 37.

Richmond, VA, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, "Masterpieces from the North Carolina Museum of Art," March 11-April 13, 1975. Object Rights Statement

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