Neptuno: from Baroque Myth to the Present

PAINTING: Neptuno

TECHNIQUE: Oil on canvas

DIMENSIONS: 50 cm (h) x 50 cm x 2.5 cm

A dialogue that has crossed the centuries without ever breaking off: the dialogue between the beauty of the classical world and the present that reinterprets it. Neptuno is the point where that dialogue turns to silence, an invitation to stop and listen.

From left: Neptuno (Simone Russo, contemporary painting, Green Soul series) and the Bust of Neptune by Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1725–1727, terracotta, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the work that inspired the painting.

Behind the scenes: a dialogue with Lambert-Sigisbert Adam’s Bust of Neptune

The painting grew out of a visual and conceptual dialogue with the Bust of Neptune (1725–1727), a terracotta masterpiece by the eighteenth-century sculptor Lambert-Sigisbert Adam. It’s a work that captivates through its extraordinary Baroque energy: the expressive tension, the proud gaze, the almost liquid movement of the beard, elements I wanted to reinterpret, projecting them into an entirely new, contemporary dimension.

From myth to concept: Neptune as an idea

In my painting, Neptune stops being a simple mythological figure and becomes a concept, an idea: the beauty and spirit of the classical world live again in a contemporary space. Classical antiquity is the origin of our civilization and of our very structures of thought; in this sense, the divine, sought after and identified under different labels throughout time, has always been a beacon for humanity, an ideal model through which to understand the world and ourselves.

Nature and technology, listening

At the conceptual heart of the work is a search for dialogue between nature and our technological world. Large, modern headphones wrap around the god’s head. It’s a hint that we should all be the ones wearing them: only by putting ourselves in a state of deep listening can we grasp the wonder of everything around us, and free ourselves from the limits of our own individualism. It’s an invitation to tune in to that harmony and authentic beauty that nature already offers us.

Fragments of reality: the composition

The figure emerges from a fragmented space, dominated by intersecting geometric, monochromatic planes. Through these multiple cracks in reality, glimpses of green leaves emerge, vivid and alive: a nature that surrounds us, silent but present, the origin of everything. That green making its way through the geometry is the same soul that gives the series to which Neptuno belongs its name: “Green Soul“, the body of work in which I explore the bond between nature, soul, and transformation.