The Trevi fountain from the time of Urban VIII
Although he could not get everything he needed from this “marble and travertine mine”, Bernini did not pause in what he had begun because, in the period 1641-43, having “made great destruction of houses for the façade”, though without destroying the ancient “trough”, he started to build his new façade on the side of the square where it is now. A diarist noted that the reason for moving it was the Pope’s wish to be able to see the water fountain from the Quirinale Palace, but it is much more likely that the innovation was due to the fact that, in the new position, Bernini not only enlarged the square (which almost doubled in size), but also had a much greater area to play with for the design of the Trevi Fountain.
So now let us look at Bernini’s design for the Trevi Fountain, which is as famous as it is unknown. The first thing to say is that the fountain architect planned a colossal undertaking, in that, on top of the 6000 scudi allotted by the Capitoline Authorities and the materials for building the fountain obtained gratis from the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, we know that – in the established way – “those who had houses near the Trevi fountain were obliged to pay 30,000 scudi, so that the fountain could be decorated in accordance with the designs Bernini made”; which gave him 36,000 scudi as well as a large part of the materials. If, ten years or so later, he was to spend a little over 29,000 scudi on the imposing Four Rivers fountain, it’s clear that the Trevi Fountain must have been a gigantic project that would undoubtedly have covered at least the same surface area as that Nicola Salvi actually used for the fountain.
Another useful clue to forming an idea of Bernini’s design for the Trevi Fountain can be found in the 1665 drawing by Cruyl and from a similar, contemporaneous one by Falda. These show a base and a lightly outlined semicircle set against the wall between the little Palazzo Schiavo (on the left) and the Palazzo Vitelleschi (on the right), with water pouring out in three places. The shape of the base of the Trevi Fountain makes one think a niche might be erected on it at some later date. The water is falling into a wide semicircular basin with a border pierced by three openings allowing the flow to enter another basin that repeats the line of the first one. If the drawings by Cruyl and Falda give a true picture of Bernini’s earliest work then the fountain itself was not so enormous and it must be concluded that the architect anticipated a grandiose “backdrop” consisting of two very extensive wings framing or setting the scene for the fountain; there can be no other explanation for that massive initial outlay of 36,000 scudi, exclusive of materials.
The only design for the Trevi fountain from the time of Urban VIII is the one already mentioned. This is an anonymous sketch and there are two fundamental reasons why I do not think it was presented in competition with the fountain plan by Bernini: the first is that this fountain was clearly intended to be built, not in the new position chosen by Gian Lorenzo (i.e. the current location) but on the old site, as planned by della Porta, whose plans for the fountain were certainly available to whoever drew up the design we are looking at now. Next Bernini's First Trevi DesignPage...
