Neptune and Triton

Neptune strides forward and thrusts his trident downward to still the waters, the young Triton crouched below blowing his conch, the god's cloak billowing and his body braced against an unseen sea. Bernini carved the over-life-size group, early in his career, for a fountain in the gardens of the Villa Montalto in Rome, where water would have completed the drama. Now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, it already shows the sculptor's gift for the charged, transient instant - stone caught in the act of command, mid-stride and mid-gust.