Creara heightens the dramatic intensity of the scene through the black, turbulent waves surging against the dark marble ground. The sense of disorder and flight is reinforced by the rearing sea horses, their heads turning in opposite directions. The tightly cropped composition – cutting off Amphitrite’s leg and the horses’ limbs – intensifies the impression of movement, as does the goddess’s extreme torsion: her head, shown in profile, turns sharply to the right to glance behind her, while her body presses toward the rocky outcrop at left. Rather than depicting the more familiar 'Triumph of Amphitrite', Creara chose the rare subject of her flight following her first encounter with Neptune, as recounted in the 'Fabulae' of the Latin author Hyginus. Having fallen in love with Amphitrite after seeing her dance on the island of Naxos, Neptune asked her to marry him. Fearing his tempestuous nature, she rejected his advances and fled to the mountains of Atlas. Our Amphitrite reflects the refined aesthetic of International Mannerism, with its taste for precious materials and sophisticated mythological subjects, that flourished around 1600 in centers such as Fontainebleau, Prague, and Verona, fostered by artistic exchange between wealthy Veronese families and artists of the Habsburg Empire.