Neptune and Caenis

Art Historical Context

This elegant small-scale bronze captures the dramatic mythological between Neptune, the Roman of the sea, Caenis, a figure Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Created in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, likely in the Netherlands, the sculpture reflects the period’s fascination with classical stories of transformation and divine power. Neptune’s commanding presence and Caenis’s dynamic pose highlight the Mannerist taste for elongated forms and emotional intensity, a style popularized by Bartholomeus Spranger, whose designs often influenced sculptors and printmakers like Johann Sadeler I. Cas...