Fontana del Tritone, Rome
Fontana del Tritone | |
|---|---|
| Fountain | |
 Fontana del Tritone by Gian Lorenzo Bernini | |
| Design | Gian Lorenzo Bernini |
| Location | Piazza Barberini, Rome, Italy |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| Coordinates: 41°54′13″N 12°29′18″E / 41.90361°N 12.48833°E | |
Fontana del Tritone (Triton Fountain) is a seventeenth-century fountain in Rome, by the
Description
The
The Tritone, the first of Bernini's free-standing urban fountains, was erected to provide water from the Acqua Felice aqueduct which Urban had restored.[2] It was Bernini's last major commission from his great patron who died in 1644. At the Triton Fountain, Urban and Bernini brought the idea of a sculptural fountain, familiar from villa gardens, decisively to a public urban setting for the first time; previous public fountains in the city of Rome had been passive basins for the reception of public water.
Bernini has represented the triton to illustrate the triumphant passage from
- Already Triton, at his call, appears
- Above the waves; a Tyrian robe he wears;
- And in his hand a crooked trumpet bears.
- The sovereign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,
- And give the waves the signal to retire.
- His writhen shell he takes; whose narrow vent
- Grows by degrees into a large extent,
- Then gives it breath; the blast with doubling sound,
- Runs the wide circuit of the world around:
- The sun first heard it, in his early east,
- And met the rattling echoes in the west.
- The waters, list'ning to the trumpet's roar,
- Obey the summons, and forsake the shore.
- —free translation by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al..
The following year, Bernini sculpted the Fontana delle Api (Fountain of the Bees), a watering trough where the Via Veneto enters the Piazza Barberini.[2] Both fountains were constructed around the time of the First War of Castro. Matthew K. Averett sees a political statement in their construction: as Urban restoring peace after an unfortunate but necessary conflict.[4]
Subsequent history
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The Triton Fountain is one of those evoked in
The setting of the Piazza Barberini has changed significantly since the seventeenth century. Engravings of the time and photographs from the nineteenth century show much lower buildings around the piazza, which would have made the fountain much more dramatic. However, it is a tribute to the artistic judgement of Bernini that even now, with tall buildings around the traffic-ridden piazza, that the Triton Fountain can still maintain a dramatic presence.
See also
Notes
- Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
- ^ The dolphins are represented in their heraldic conventionalization, not as they appear in nature.
- bozzetti at the Detroit Institute of Arts, (accession numbers 52.218 and 52.219) securely attributed to Bernini, reflect his exploration of the fountain's themes of the intertwined upended dolphins and the muscular, scaly-tailed Triton.
References
- ^ "Fontana del Tritone, Rome, Italy", CurateND
- ^ a b c "The Triton Fountain", Turismo Roma, Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department
- ^ "A study for the Fontana del Tritone, Piazza Barberini, Rome", Royal Collection Trust
- ^ Averett, Matthew Knox. "'Redditus Orbis Erat': The Political Rhetoric of Bernini’s Fountains in Piazza Barberini", The Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 45, no. 1, 2014, pp. 3–24. JSTOR
External links
- Web Gallery of Art: image and description
- (Mary Anne Sullivan), photographs of the Triton Fountain
- Bernini bozzetti: Detroit Institute of Art
Media related to Fontana del Tritone (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by Fountain of the Tritons |
Landmarks of Rome Fontana del Tritone, Rome |
Succeeded by Victor Emmanuel II Monument |