Neptune and the Winds
Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)
Original Dimensions: 24 1/2" x 24 1/2"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (1760s) "For millennia, sailors depended on unpredictable winds that many saw as signs of divine favor or punishment. The ancient poet Virgil told how the sea god Neptune saved the hero Aeneas from shipwreck by calming turbulent winds. Neptune’s raised hand announces his command, halting personifications of the winds whose cheeks puff with air. Behind him, Aeneas clings to his ship’s wheel, but the drama unfolds where we stand. The artist intended this composition as a ceiling design, probably for Madrid’s Royal Palace, and has therefore placed us on the stormy sea at the mercy of the gods above." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

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