Design for the Border of a Salver

This drawing is a design for the decorated rim of a luxury metal salver or large serving dish. It depicts muscular male sea-gods and female nymphs in various states of embrace or struggle with coiled, serpentine sea monsters.

The 'Marine Thiasos' motif was highly popular in the Renaissance as a recovery of ancient Roman funerary art; in a Neoplatonic context, these watery processions were often interpreted as representations of the turbulent material realm or the journey of the soul across the cosmic ocean.