Object details
Object number
S5s29.1-6
Creator(s)
Italian, Venice
Title
Set of Six Tritons
Date
17th century
Medium
Sandstone
Dimensions
45.7 x 45.7 cm (18 x 18 in.)
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer A. Clerle, Venice on 27 September 1897 for 280 lire (for seven Tritons).
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased the stone sculptures around the rim of the Courtyard fountain in Venice. She arranged the display during the construction of the museum. In her design, Isabella alternated friezes of dolphins, cornucopias, and masks with tritons, a Greek god of the sea represented as a merman (half-man, half-fish) blowing a conch shell.
Bibliography
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 4. (as "Venetian fountain")
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 45. (as several pieces of 17th century carving, probably Venetian)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 155, no. 193. (as Venetian, 17th century)
Pieranna Cavalchini and Amanda Esteves-Kraus (eds.). Portrait (Boston, 2012), p. 60. (quoting the diary of Willard T. Sears on 17 Sept. 1901)
Gallery
Courtyard
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