D'après Gian Lorenzo BERNINI, dit Le BERNIN (1598-1680)

* Triton riding a dolphin, standing on a large conch among the rocks Bronze with brown patina. Lost wax (in two parts). Reduction of the fountain known as the Moor in Piazza Navona in Rome. France or Italy, probably 18th century. Presence of two threaded bronze attachments below. Height : 77,6 cm - Width base : 36,1 cm Depth base : 43 cm (Old repairs on the underside, an old crack, wear and tear) COMPARATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY Claude Douglas Dickerson etc. Bernini sculpting in Clay, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Kimbell Art Museum, 2012, Cat. 13 pp. 171 à 177. Although there are a few rare bronze reductions of the famous Moor from Piazza Navona, only the one we are presenting today has exactly the same unique characteristics of the terracotta modello housed in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (no. AP 2003.01). Indeed: on the fountain, as on the previously known reductions, the conch on which the Triton rests seems to float on the waters of the basin, while the bronze we are presenting offers a terrace forming a pedestal of rocks, the only other identical occurrence of which can only be found on the Bernini terracotta modello acquired in 2003 by the Kimbell Art Museum. It should also be noted that this singular cluster of rocks is not found in any drawing or engraving. It is therefore obvious that the artist who formed the wax that was used to make our unique bronze had in front of him Bernini's terracotta model, which has been kept at the Kimbell Art Museum since 2003 and whose dimensions are comparable (height: 80 cm).