Description

This carving of a Triton or Merman has heavy lids, a moustache and Van Dyck beard, as well as a helmet from which curls peep out underneath. He is similar in concept to the ‘putti’ terms, having shoulder scrolls which terminate in prominent pectoral muscles, and being himself a term, with a curved terminal decorated with spiral foliate ornament interspersed with scales.

He is also paralleled on the Vasa but his fish-scales appear more rudimentary than those on the Vasa, and much overlapped by the foliage, which may be intended to represent seaweed.

This carving would have been placed on the stern rail where the quarterdeck stepped down to the main deck

Model