A BRONZE MODEL OF A TRITON RIDING A TORTOISE

Although some scholars have attributed the model upon which this bronze is based to a Venetian sculptor of the mid-16th century, it also relates closely to the triton figures that feature in designs and bozzetti for Roman fountains executed by Gianlorenzo Bernini in the first half of the 17th century. Compositionally and stylistically, it is particularly close to the four tritons surrounding the Moor on the Fontana dei Mori in Rome (see C. Avery, Bernini - Genius of the Baroque, London, 1997, fig. 296).