Sea God and Nereid

Copy, on the same verso, from a niello formerly belonging to the Durazzo collection, now in the Rothschild collection at the Louvre.

The nielli of the Durazzo collection were reproduced in prints by owner’s will, between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, in Venice - as also specified by Malaspina in his catalog of 1824 - constituting a series that was circulated and collected by the amateurs.

Bartsch describes these niello prints in his volume published in 1811, a date that therefore constitutes the terminus ante quem for the execution.

The composition is attributed to Girolamo Mocetto, because is certainly similar to Mocetto’s style as in his “Frieze with Nymphs and Tritons” (cfr. TIB 2505.017).