Our research project uncovers the forgotten Neptunomania which seized European courts and cities from the early sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century. Since Aby Warburg’s inchoate formulation of “The Age of Neptune” in his Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, which can be seen here, a systematic study of this craze for water-god imagery has never been undertaken. Building on explorations of the agentive and affective qualities of images and the afterlife of the classical tradition, as well as the link between the fashioning of state power and the emergence of the new philosophies, our ultimate aim is to reframe our understanding of the…