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Neptune and the Winds

1760s
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 638
Tiepolo illustrates a celebrated passage from Virgil's Aeneid describing how Neptune calmed the winds to save the Trojan hero Aeneas from shipwreck. Neptune raises his arm to challenge personifications of the winds, who flee across the foreground. Jupiter, identifiable with his eagle, is shown boldly foreshortened, a decision made in order for the scene to appear to rise illusionistically through the painted ceiling. This sketch may be related to Tiepolo’s decoration of a room with an apotheosis of Aeneas (1764–66) in the Palacio Real, Madrid.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Neptune and the Winds
  • Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid)
  • Date: 1760s
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: Round painted surface, 24 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (62.2 x 62.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1937
  • Object Number: 37.165.4
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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Adoration of the Magi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Etching
Adoration of the Magi
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
ca. 1753 (?)
Half-dressed Nymph with two children, surrounded by four men, from the Scherzi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Etching
Half-dressed Nymph with two children, surrounded by four men, from the Scherzi
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
ca. 1743–50
St. Joseph with the Child Jesus
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
The Family of the oriental Peasant, from the Scherzi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Etching
The Family of the oriental Peasant, from the Scherzi
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
ca. 1740
A Shepherd with two Magicians, from the Scherzi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Etching
A Shepherd with two Magicians, from the Scherzi
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
ca. 1740

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