Neptuno Niño

Author Ramón Muriedas.

Promenade Playa del Camello. The Sardinero. Santander. (Bronze)

The delicate silhouette of a child, popularly known as “Niño Pez”, is silhouetted against the horizon from a promontory of Playa del Camello in Santander. It is the fragile and naked figure of a teenager facing the sea who holds a trident with his left arm. The greatest singularity of this sculpture – made in bronze – resides in the peculiar enclave in which it is located, on top of a cliff, standing upright and facing the sea. And, on the other hand, in the mode chosen to represent the figure of Neptune-the feared king of classical mythology who ruled the seas and waters-a child.

Ramon Muriedas once said “all my characters are children”, and in this way, I carried out this assignment of UNICEF, in 1979, making a tribute to childhood and the dream world that surrounds it. Certainly children were a recurring theme in the career of the sculptor, who also modeled delicate children’s heads to which he personalized with headdresses and accessories of the most varied. And, thanks to these small details, it transformed them into the desired character.

* The figure of this child king has become over the years one of the hallmarks of Santander. But during the last decades it deteriorated due to the passage of time and some acts of vandalism, so that it is currently in full restoration phase and will soon be reintegrated back to its place of origin.