from the self guided brochure, this is stop number 17:
adopted by Judith Zuckerburg & George Kole
Marble
Neptune with fish at his feet. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea & second in power to Jupiter. Neptune ruled with violent fits of temper & fury sparking tempests. His trident launched thunderbolts.
This is one of two statues added in 2007.
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Inscription: (On back, bottom of sculpture, beneath the fish:) Artistic/(copyright symbol) 1876 (letter R inside a box)/(...illegible) signed
Description: A nude, bearded man with a moustache, probably Neptune, stands holding drapery in his proper right hand and a fish in his proper left hand. The fish's tail covers Neptune's genitals, while the fish's body wraps around behind him and its head emerges under Neptune's proper right foot. The sculpture is mounted on an ornately decorated base. The sculpture was once a fountain with water coming from the fish's mouth.
Remarks: Bought in 1925 in Venice, Italy by John Ringling for his intended Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sarasota, Florida. The hotel was never completed due to the 1929 stock market crash. The sculpture was loaned by the Ringling Museum to the City of Sarasota in the late 1950s. For related information see David Weeks' "Ringling, The Florida Years: 1911-1936."
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