The "Vatican Bees"
The "Vatican Bees" and Palazzo Barberini
From what we know, Gian Lorenzo Bernini's first experience with fountains took place around 1622 and was actually on one of the estates previously mentioned. However, the villa in question was the one Domenico Fontana had built for Sixtus V, so it was still typical of the 16th century and as yet had no rustic fountains. In fact, Gian Lorenzo was commissioned to create the principal ornamental feature of a famous fishpond (the largest in any of the Roman villas), which consisted of a wide oval pool surrounded by a balustrade on which twelve statues alternated with a dozen "cups" giving forth sprays of water. In an elevated position at the end of the balustrade, where the jets of water were strongest, Bernini placed his powerful sculpture: Neptune, infuriated by the unruly waves, brandishes his trident in a threatening gesture while, between his legs, the half-seen figure of a lively Triton emerges, blowing water through a conch shell. Though only responsible for one of this fountain's decorations, the artist has already given us a hint of his essential principles.
Bernini's first real experience with a whole fountain came three years later, when he was commissioned to work in the courtyard of the Belvedere. At the time of Urban VIII, several springs of "clear, sweet, very light water with no taste or sediment" had arisen to the west of this area below the Vatican hill. Even in the 18th century these were still sometimes mistaken for St. Damasus' water which "vulgar idiots drink with some kind of act of pious devotion." Since it was necessary to channel these little streams, the Pope who, in 1623, had already granted Bernini two official appointments that gave him the responsibility for Rome's fountains and conduits, in 1625 commissioned him to build a new fountain.
The artist carved a hill in the shape of a perfect triangle, scattered here and there with plants and bushes; on each side, two thick twisted branches bear twigs covered in large leaves and berries, giving the composition an unnatural and frightening appearance. At the top, the curlicues of a large scroll embrace a charming verse about the five bees which, arranged in a semicircle at the foot of the little hill, originally released "minute threads of water." The verse read: "The bees suck honey from the flower, so why be surprised that now they offer honeyed water?"
The inspiration for this tiny group is clearly recognizable in the nearby rustic fountain known as the "Eagle," built about 15 years earlier for Paul V as the display fountain for the Aqua Paola in the Vatican Gardens. This consisted of an extravagant arrangement with dragons and sea creatures peering out of rocks and caves. However, with the "Vatican Bees," it is obvious that the rustic fountain has had its day. While the earlier statues of humans and animals had a purely decorative function, here Gian Lorenzo combines sculpture and architecture into a single entity, using the animal element as a kind of tie to bond brutal, fearsome nature and the pure, gushing water.
A little fountain that was somewhat similar to the one I have just described stood in the niche that used to close off the entrance hall of Palazzo Barberini. At the back of the hallway was an open shell in which a Sun sprayed out a veil of water, and a "Great Bee" about 67.5cm long was portrayed flying around the sun and taking a drink and spraying out "a stream of honey" at the same time. In addition, "two full tortoises and two halves" (one on each of the four sides), as big as the Great Bee, poured water into the lower half of the shell. The niche and the area around the fountain were scattered with rock formations.
This fountain, which is so typical of Bernini, may have given you an idea of the Vatican Bees and of the present Bee Fountain in Via Veneto, so now I hope you will permit me a brief discourse on a delightful little fountain in the garden opposite the building. According to oral tradition, this is where it was built "brand new" by the architect Francesco Azzurri towards the end of the 19th century when the whole garden was reorganized. Despite this tradition, I think it fairly likely that Azzurri used an ancient fountain that originally stood at the bottom of the large flight of steps on the left, which appears in two sketches of the house, one dating from 1653 and the other from 1868. Of course, Azzurri must have moved the fountain and, perhaps, made major restorations to it.
It was here that I think Bernini himself placed the attractive candle-shaped fountain, with the very shallow basin -- a real innovation by Gian Lorenzo in the art of fountain architecture and one in line with his own principle that "since fountains are made for people to enjoy water they must always make it fall in a way that makes them noticed.
Apart from this typical characteristic, Bernini's "signature" appears in two other places: high up, where three bees are drinking around a spray of water but also, and much more importantly, at the base, on the edges of the octagonal basin, where four large marble masks spout powerful jets of water upwards from their mouths. These magnificent heads display features we have already identified as absolutely typical of Bernini's work: receding chin, large moustache, snub nose, little animal-like eyes, heavy downward-slanting eyebrows almost meeting in the middle, hair also thick and unruly and, here, fanning out around the ears.
