# Neptune and Amphitrite [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GOSSART, Jan]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on wood, 188 x 124 cm ## Commentary The impact of Gossart's stay in Rome in 1509 took another decade to surface. Between 1516 and 1524 , he again worked for Philip of Burgundy. The Neptune and Amphitrite is the only extant part of a programme of mythological paintings made for Philip's Suytburg \(Souburg\) castle near Middleburg in Zeeland. The choice of Neptune, god of the sea, and his wife, a Nereid or sea-nymph, was appropriate for the Admiral. These startlingly large nudes \(the first nudes in the history of Flemish art\) have few precedents in Northern Renaissance art. Dürer's <A onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/d/durer/2/13/2/042.html'\)" HREF="/html/d/durer/2/13/2/042.html">Adam and Eve</A> inspired the poses but not their ample bodies. Gossart was influenced, too, by Jacopo de' Barbari, the Venetian who also painted at Middleburg \(see e.g. his <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/b/barbari/venus.html'\)" href="/html/b/barbari/venus.html">Mars and Venus</a>\). The deities stand like colossal statues in the call of an ancient temple. He has elongated the bodies and extended their erotic character. Features such as the 'bucrania' \(ox skulls\) on the architrave doubtlessly derived from Gossart's Roman drawings. ## Related artworks - [A Grotesque with Two Sirens]() - [A Man Holding a Glove]() - [A Reliquary]() - [A Women's Bath]() - [Adam Accuses Eve before God]() - [Adam and Eve \(detail\)]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Agony in the Garden \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()