Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

The bearded, slender god of the oceans stands with his left leg set forward and slightly turned out, flexed at the knee. His torso turns; his left arm is raised from his side, his hand reaching shoulder height. In his forward right hand, he carries a fish with upward-curving tail. A cloak is carelessly draped over his left shoulder, its tip hanging down to the left knee. Poseidon’s rounded head is covered by a tight cap of short cropped hair; his long, carefully curled beard falls down to his collarbone. The almond-shaped eyes above round cheeks are accompanied by a rather short nose over a small, sullen mouth. The execution of the features, the musculature, and the hair is fine, and rhythmically in keeping with the body’s posture. The movement within the figure is an elongated S-curve both frontally and sideways, leaving no clear rigid axiality within the figure.