Triumph of Galatea with Tritons, Nereids and Putti

Galatea glides across the sea, looking back with a calm expression while her cloak billows in a great arc behind her. Around her, muscular tritons blow conch shells and embrace nereids, while three putti in the sky aim their arrows at her and a fourth hovers in the clouds holding a quiver. The composition is noted for its rhythmic movement and the balance between the chaotic sea creatures and the graceful central figure.

Commissioned for the Villa Farnesina, this work embodies the High Renaissance Neoplatonic ideal of beauty as a reflection of the divine. Raphael's approach to the subject reflects the Platonic theory of forms, as he famously claimed to have painted from an 'internal idea' rather than a physical model to achieve such perfection.