(Treviso 1500–1571 Venice)
Neptune and Amphitrite,
oil on canvas, 106 x 98.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection

Exhibited: Bitonto, Galleria Nazionale della Puglia, 15 December 2012 – 8 April 2013, no. 1

Literature:
A. Donati, Nettuno e Anfitrite in Tiziano, Bordon e gli Acquaviva d’Aragona : pittori veneziani in Puglia e fuoriusciti napoletani in Francia, ed. by N. Barbone Pugliese, A. Donati, L.Puppi, exhibition catalogue (Bitonto, Galleria Nazionale della Puglia, 15 December 2012 – 8 April 2013) Foggia 2012, cat. no. 1, p. 236-239

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for confirming the attribution after examination in the original. We are also grateful to Professor Vincenzo Pacelli for independently confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original.

The present painting is typical of the oeuvre of Paris Bordon and displays the artist´s characteristic physiognomies and rich chromatic palette together with a high pictorial quality. Paris Bordon’s Titian-inspired style was highly successful both in the Veneto and elsewhere in Northern Italy, Southern Germany and France during the middle decades of the sixteenth century.

As the present picture is neither documented or signed or dated, its chronology and the possible identification of the patron are subject to discussion. It has been suggested that Paris Bordon executed the picture for a Genoese patron, such as Ottaviano Grimaldi or Tommaso Marino, both mentioned by Vasari as clients of the painter (op. cit. Donati, 2012, no.1). It would seem that the picture has much in common with a group of mythological pictures Paris Bordon created around 1550 onwards for a European clientele. It is obvious that Bordon and his patrons are referring, in pictures such as the present work, to the great success of Titian’s poesie for Philip II. The present picture comes closest to Jupiter and Io, in the Museum of Goteborg, which may be dated around 1560 and this may be the approximate date of the present compostion.

The subject of Neptune and Amphitrite is unusual in Renaissance painting. In the present work the marriage of the sea goddess Amphitrite, daughter of Nereus and Doris, with Poseidon is depicted. The sea goddess is shown riding on a dolphin. The twisted, elegant poses of the two figures recall examples from the central-Italian maniera and Giulio Romano. The iconography could also have been inspired from Roman sarcophagi: in particular, the scene can be compared to a sarcofago in Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome (op.cit., Donati, 2012) and, as suggested by Professor Vincenzo Pacelli, to another sarcophagus today in the Vatican Museums.

The present picture is an important addition to Bordon’s late oeuvre and displays the refined quality of his internationally sought after mythological pictures.

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for his help in cataloguing this painting.