Amphitrite
Artist
Michel Anguier
Eu, France, 1612 – Paris 1686
Title
Amphitrite
Date
About 1652
Materials
Bronze
Dimensions
65 x 21.5 x 19.5 cm (with base)
Credits
Purchase, gift of Mrs. Algernon Lucas, inv. 1965.1517
Collection
Western Art
Anguier played an important role in the development of the classical tendency in mid-seventeenth-century French sculpture. This statuette of the Roman goddess Amphitrite, wife of the sea god Poseidon, is based on a model executed by Anguier in 1652 for a series of gods and goddesses to be cast in bronze, an ideal medium for rendering the sensuality of the nude; it conveys perfectly the elegant proportions, smooth surfaces and fluid, rhythmic outlines of figures. The evocation of tactility is enhanced in this piece by the dolphin on which Amphitrite stands, and the lobster clinging to her hand.
