The Triumph of Galatea

c. 1650

Bernardo Cavallino

Artist, Neapolitan, 1616 - 1656

A nearly nude, pale-skinned woman rides an oversized seashell being pulled by stylized dolphins in this horizontal painting. Four muscular, tanned men with dark, unruly curly hair surround the shell and play music. The woman sits on a seat made by twisting red coral with her body angled to our right. She turns her face up and to our left, to the sky. She has dark eyes and brows, a heart-shaped face, a cleft in her chin, and her pink lips are parted. Her auburn-brown hair appears gathered at the base of her neck and long tresses lift in the breeze over her right shoulder, to our left. A teardrop-shaped pearl hangs from the ear we can see. A celestial-blue cloth and a translucent white veil wraps over one shoulder and flutters behind her. The cloth then drapes across her back and over her thighs, exposing her soft tummy and rounded hips. The fish-like dolphins pulling the shell have rounded heads and black, glassy eyes. Short fins run the length of their curved backs over dark, olive-green skin. The woman guides them using red, twisted cords looped through their mouths. A pair of musicians are to each side of the shell. To our left and in the lower corner, one man holds a flute to his lips. The outer corners of his eyebrows arch up under a lined forehead. A ring of broad leaves wraps around his waist. Another man behind him blows with cheeks puffed into a shell as he looks at us. In the pair to our right, on the far side of the shell, one man holds a stick, perhaps guiding the vessel, while another, at the front of the grouping, blows into a shell. The man at front wears rings of leaves around his head and waist. The scene is lit starkly from our left, illuminating the woman and casting the rest into shadow. The water around the group is dark, pine green. Rocky mountains dotted with trees and buildings rise in the distance. Ash-gray clouds create diagonal bands moving up and to our right against a muted blue sky.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Patrons' Permanent Fund

  • Dimensions

    original canvas: 148.3 × 203 cm (58 3/8 × 79 15/16 in.)
    with extensions: 152.1 × 205.1 cm (59 7/8 × 80 3/4 in.)
    framed: 178.75 × 234.32 × 15.24 cm (70 3/8 × 92 1/4 × 6 in.)

  • Accession

    2000.61.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Art market, Genoa, c. 1974.[1] Private collection, Switzerland; (Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London), 1981-1982; Saul P. Steinberg [1914-1999], New York; purchased 1 June 2000 through (Richard Feigen and Co., New York) by NGA.
[1] This painting has been linked to a commission from Don Antonio Ruffo, an important art collector from Messina, to Artemisia Gentileschi: arguments in favor of this provenance can be found in Nicola Spinosa's essay in Bernardo Cavallino (1616-1656), exh. cat., Museo Pignatelli, Naples, 1985: 188 and 219; Jozef Grabski, "On Seicento Painting in Naples: Some Observations on Bernardo Cavallino, Artemisia Gentileschi and Others," Artibus et Historiae 11 (1985): 23-63 (41-55); and especially R. Ward Bissell, Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. Critical Reading and Catalogue Raisonné, University Park, 1999: 287-288. However, a number of discrepancies between the inventory description of the Ruffo canvas and the NGA painting call this provenance into question. Furthermore, technical examination of the work has found no evidence of the separate hands of both Artemisia, to whom the commission was awarded, and Cavallino. It is therefore unlikely that the NGA painting is the one described in Ruffo's collection.
More recently, Christopher Marshall put forward another possible provenance for the work. The collection of Antonio Arici in Naples held "a Galatea, with various putti, who rides on the sea...by Bernardo Cavalliero." This connection, however, proves equally problematic. While the recorded dimensions correspond with those of the NGA 2000.61.1, it is rather surprising that the inventory, probably drawn up by Arici's own sister in 1744, would mistake the adult seafaring tritons in the NGA painting for putti (Christopher R. Marshall, "An early inventory reference and new technical information for Bernardo Cavallino's 'Triumph of Galatea'," The Burlington Magazine CXLVII (2005): 42-43. The connection with Arici was first suggested by Stefano Causa, "Risarcimento di Onofrio Palumbo," Paragone 37-8 (1993): 36 n. 29.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

  • Painting in Naples 1606-1705: From Caravaggio to Giordano, Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Fondazione Agnelli, Torino, 1982-1983, no. 33, repro. (not shown in Paris).

1984

  • Bernardo Cavallino of Naples, 1616-1656, Cleveland Museum of Art; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Museo Pignatelli Cortes, Naples, 1984-1985, no. 68, repro.

2009

  • Ritorno al barocco : da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli [Return to the Baroque. From Caravaggio to Vanvitelli], Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples, 2009-2010, no. I.96, repro.

2016

  • Artemisia Gentileschi e il suo tempo, Palazzo Braschi, Rome, 2016-2017, no. 91, repro.

Bibliography

1985

  • Grabski, Józef. "On Seicento Painting in Naples: Some Observations on Bernardo Cavallino, Artemisia Gentileschi and Others. II. The Ruffo Triumph of Galatea." Artibus et Historiae 6, no. 11 (1985): 41-55, repro.

  • Stoughton, Michael. "Bernardo Cavallino. Fort Worth." The Burlington Magazine 127 (March 1985): 194.

1986

  • Enggass, Robert. Review of Ann Percy, Ann T. Lurie, et al., Bernardo Cavalino of Naples, 1616-1656, exh. cat. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1984. The Art Bulletin LXVIII, no. 1 (March 1986): 168-169.

1999

  • Bissell, R. Ward. Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. University Park, Pennsylvania, 1999: 287-292, no. 49, as by Artemisia Gentileschi and Bernardo Cavallino.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 162-163, no. 122, color repro.

2005

  • De Vito, Giuseppe. "A note on Artemisia Gentilieschi and her collaborator Onofrio Palumbo." The Burlington Magazine 147 (November 2005): 749.

  • Lattuada, Riccardo. "New Documents and Some Remarks on Artemisia's Production in Naples and Elsewhere" in Artemisia Gentileschi: Taking Stock, ed. by Judith W. Mann. Turnhout, 2005: 89.

  • Marshall, Christopher R. "An early inventory reference and new technical information for Bernardo Cavallino's 'Triumph of Galatea'." The Burlington Magazine 147 (January 2005): 40-44, fig. 34.

Wikidata ID

Q20177361

You may be interested in

Loading Results