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Triton with a Sea Serpent

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini Italian, 1598-1680
On View

in

European: Grand Tour of Italy-Rome, Level 2, South Wing

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About the Artwork

Triton with a Sea Serpent

ca. 1630s, before 1642

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini

1598-1680

Italian

Unknown

Terracotta

Overall: 11 × 6 3/4 × 7 1/4 inches (27.9 × 17.1 × 18.4 cm)

Sculpture

European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Founders Society Purchase, Ralph Harman Booth Bequest Fund

52.218

Public Domain

Markings

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Provenance

possibly Palazzo Barberini (Rome, Italy);
Friedrich von Amerling (Vienna, Austria);
May 6, 1916, (Dorotheum, Vienna, Austria) Estate of Friedrich von Amerling, lot 178;
Dr. Rudolphe Berl (Vienna, Austria);
(Wildenstein, New York, New York, USA);
1952-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Planscig, Leo. "Die Auktion Amerling." Die Bildenden Kunste [Der Architekt], vol. XXI (1916/18): p. II (ill.)

Brinckmann, A.E. "Due bozzetti per fontana di G.L. Bernini." Bolletino D'arte (1924): pp. 492-493.

Brinckmann, A.E. Barock-Bozzeti, vol. 2. Frankfurt, 1924, pp. 491-493.

Bozzetti und Modelletti der Spatrenaissance und des Barock. Exh. cat., Kunsthistorisches Museum. Vienna, 1936-1937, nos. 3-4.

Born, Wolfgang. "Bozzetti and modelletti of the late Renaissance and the Baroque." Connoisseur 99 (April 1937): pp. 191-192 (figs. 1 and 3).

Froelich-Bume, L. "Bozzetti and modelletti of the Late Renaissance and the Baroque." Burlington Magazine 70 (March 1937): p. 133.

Bulletin of the DIA 32, no. 3 (1952-1953): pp. 60-64 (ill.).

Art in Italy, 1600-1700. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1965, no. 27 (ill.).

Wittkower, R. Gian Lorenzo Bernini. London, 1966, p. 227, no. 55 [as a bozzetto].

Fagiolo dell'Arco (1967): (figs. 38, 142).

Schlegel, U. Die italienschen Bildwerke des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1978, p. 12, no. 4.

Darr in Rome. 1999, pp. 182, 382-384, nos. 121-122.

Gaskell, I. and H. Lie, eds. Sketches in Clay for Prjects by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Theoretical, Technical and Case Studies. Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin (Spring 1999): pp. 120, 123, 177.

Darr, A.P., P. Barnet, A. Bostrom, C. Avery, et al. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts, 2 vols. London, 2002, 2 vols., II, cat. 136a.

Ostrow, Steven F. "'The Fire of Art'?: A Historiography of Bernini’s Bozzetti." In Bernini: Sculpting in Clay, ed. C. D. Dickerson III, Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2012, pp. 77–78.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Triton with a Sea Serpent, ca. 1630s, before 1642, terracotta. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Ralph Harman Booth Bequest Fund, 52.218.

Triton with a Sea Serpent
Triton with a Sea Serpent