Neptune Calming the Waves
Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759) · 1737
The god of the sea strides forward with his trident raised, beard and hair streaming, his cloak flying out behind him, while a triton crouches at his feet on a great shell, the waves foaming around them. The scene is the famous moment in Virgil's Aeneid when Neptune rises to quell the storm that Juno has unleashed on the Trojan fleet. Everything in the marble moves: look at the diagonal of the trident, the swirl of drapery and the wet, curling forms of the shell and water. It is a small group, less than a metre high, but it has the force of a fountain.
Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, eldest of a family of sculptors from Nancy, had spent years in Rome absorbing Bernini, and he brought that energy back to Paris. He presented this marble to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on 25 May 1737 as his reception piece, after a sketch and model approved in 1733. Confiscated from the Academy in 1793, it went to Versailles, then Saint-Cloud, and probably reached the Louvre in 1849. It was lent to the Hotel de Rohan in 1938 and came back in 1941.
Did You Know? The marble was carved by the sculptor whose brother made the Prometheus in the same room, a family rivalry in stone.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.