3-035-510 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Marine Gods Paying Homage to Love, about 1636-1638. Classically proportioned sea gods and goddesses, partially clad in intensely coloured drapery, form a dramatic procession against a light blue sky. This painting illustrates an episode in Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphil (Strife of Love in a Dream of Polyphilus), an extravagant Renaissance tale of a dream-journey through antiquity. To the left, the lovers Polyphilus and Polia are ferried to Cythera, the island of love. The sea goddess Amphitrite, reclining in a shell at the lower right, and Neptune, seated high on a shell and holding his triton, watch the boat depart from amid a crowd of figures.