After Michel Anguier

Amphitrite stands on an integral textured base resembling water, holding a lobster, which is emblematic of her command over the sea. 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 the goddess of the ocean to the temperament of tranquillity and originally paired the figure with Neptune, who as a pair represented the element of water. The model is broadly based on the figure of Amphitrite in the painting of his close friend Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. no. E1932-1-1).