Artwork Information

Rather than showing Neptune with a trident, Goltzius depicts him clasping an oar in this woodcut, which is one of a set of six depicting Gods and Goddesses. Although a virile figure, Goltzius has refrained from depicting Neptune with the extreme musculature that he uses with the figure of Tantalus, and the chiaroscuro woodcut technique allows a rich painterly effect. Neptune's grotesque sea beast, which seems about to break through the picture plane into the spectator's space, prefigures John Mortimer's sea monsters, although without their human attributes. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)