Neptune in art — Rubens, Tiepolo and Walter Crane

Neptune, the Roman god of the sea and of fresh water, is often in European painting a god with power over water: he calms storms, gives gifts to cities, drives the surf before him. This page presents three paintings that shaped these images and places them in the god's history. The Neptune Fountain by Reinhold Begas in front of the Red City Hall is covered in the guide to the Nikolaiviertel.

NeptuneThe Neptune Fountain between the Red City Hall, St Mary’s Church and the TV Tower.Spandauer Straße, Berlin-Mitte · 1888 – 1891 · here since 1969Talk to the figure →

The god: Neptune and Poseidon

Neptune is regarded as the Roman god of fresh water and the sea; in the Greek-influenced tradition he is a brother of Jupiter and Pluto and is identified with Poseidon.¹ His festival, the Neptunalia, fell in high summer, usually on 23 July, a sign that in times of drought and heat he was also seen as a god of springs.¹ The tradition names trident, horse and dolphin as his attributes.¹ The link with the horse belongs to Poseidon; for Neptune it arose through identification with the Roman god Consus, who was tied to horse racing.¹

Rubens: Neptune calms the tempest, 1635

The small oil sketch in the Harvard Art Museums is a design for a festival stage: the city of Antwerp had Rubens plan the lavish welcome of the new Spanish governor, Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, in January 1635.² The sketch shows the fleet's crossing from Barcelona to Genoa in April 1633, which a storm had held up. Rubens compares it to Virgil's Aeneid, in which Neptune calms the winds that threaten Aeneas' fleet.² Harvard also lists the picture as Quos ego, the opening words of Neptune's threat to the winds.²

Tiepolo: Venice receives the gifts of the sea

The painting belongs to the Sala delle Quattro Porte of the Doge's Palace. Tiepolo painted it to replace a picture of a similar subject by Jacopo Tintoretto that had decorated a section of the room's ceiling.³ Venice appears as a richly dressed woman to whom Neptune gives gold and jewels: her wealth rests on the sea.⁴ The date varies: the Doge's Palace gives 1756 to 1758,³ the art portal arte.it gives 1745.⁴ The picture was originally set into the ceiling; today it stands on an easel so that the colours come into their own.⁴

Walter Crane: Neptune's Horses, 1892

On a trip to the USA in 1892, Walter Crane watched the Atlantic waves break at Wauwinet on Nantucket; the wind tore off the crests so the spray looked like flying manes.⁵ From this came the large painting showing Neptune with white stallions racing ashore as surf. Crane showed a small sketch at the Royal Watercolour Society in 1892 and the large picture at the New Gallery in 1893; today it hangs in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.⁵

1. 1635Rubens designs the scene “Neptune Calming the Tempest” for Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand's entry into Antwerp.
2. 1745–1758Tiepolo paints “Venice Receiving the Gifts of the Sea” for the Doge's Palace (date depends on the source).
3. 1892Walter Crane sees the surf on Nantucket and paints “Neptune's Horses”.
4. 1893The large painting is shown at the New Gallery in London.
5. 2001–2002The Fogg Art Museum shows Rubens' sketch in the exhibition “Calming the Tempest”.