From Ancient Roman depictions of Neptune, god of the sea, to The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1830) the iconic woodblock print by Japansese artist Katsushika Hokusai, the turbulence, depth and beauty of the ocean has long been a subject of artists around the world. Often pictured within the context of sailing ships, such as the storm-tossed vessels of English Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner, the ocean, along with the mysterious creatures that it houses, symbolizes the greatest unknown quantity on Earth. Painters during the Dutch Golden Age captured both the powerful waves and the serene glassy reflections of the ocean, which also represented a large source of commerce and spirit of adventure. In the contemporary era, the ocean has taken on many new meanings, especially in reference to environmentalism. Artist Maya Lin’s work Seven Square Inches of Water (2014) brings light to the risks that climate change poses to the ocean and its inhabitants. Other contemporary artists that have explored various elements of the ocean are Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, Robert Longo and Hiroshi Sugimoto.