The Fountain of Neptune

Bartolomeo Ammanati sculpted the Fountain of Neptune for the wedding of Francesco de' Medici and Giovanna d'Austria in 1565. However, the fountain was not completed until 1570 and  not unveiled until 1575. The Web Gallery of Art claims that the statue itself was an allusion to Cosimo de Medici's ambitious plan to bring a steady water supply to the city of Florence, as well as set up a port at Livorno. The fountain is located in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Years before the statue's construction, Ammanati,  Bartolommeo Bandinelli, and Benvenuto Cellini vied to construct a monument in the Piazza della Signoria. When Bartolommeo died Bandineli died, Ammanati won mostly thanks to the support of fellow artists Michael Angelo and Giorgio Vasari.

The Fountain of Neptune exemplifies renaissance style art through its emphasis on the human body, particularly the male body. The god Neptune stands centered, surrounded by smaller male demi gods, all of whom are sculpted with exceptional detail, with great emphasis on muscles and realistic representation. Similar to Donatello's David, which is a representation of the Greek god Mercury, Ammanati's choice of the god Neptune as the subject of his sculpture is an example of the classical era revival of the renaissance period.  Even the origin of the statue's creation symbolizes the Italian renaissance. Competition within renaissance era Italy helped to drive the emergence of culture within the Italian peninsula. The fact that the origin of the statue is rooted in competition epitomizes the values emerging in renaissance era Florence.

http://www.wga.hu/html_m/a/ammanati/neptune1.html