Amphitrite
Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720) · 1703-1705
The wife of Neptune reclines on a rocky shore attended by the creatures of the sea. Amphitrite turns her head, one arm resting easily on the rock, her drapery slipping to reveal the smooth modelling of the torso that made Coysevox the favourite sculptor of the court of Louis the Fourteenth. The pose is calm, almost domestic, in contrast to the muscular energy of the male river gods nearby. Look for the shells and the dolphin motifs that identify her, and for the way the marble surface changes from polished skin to roughly worked rock.
Amphitrite was one of four groups commissioned in 1698 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart for the Rivière, the long cascade at Marly, alongside Neptune, her pendant, and the Seine and the Marne. Models were made in 1698 and 1699 and cast in plaster on the very spots where the marbles were to go. The carving began once Coysevox had finished his Mercury and Fame, and the royal inventory of 1707 records the group as completed in 1705. After the Revolution the group was moved to Paris in 1801, and it was transferred to the Louvre in 1966.
Did You Know? Full-size plaster versions stood at Marly for years so that the king could judge the effect before the marble was carved.
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