Some Final Thoughts on the Trevi Fountain
When, in his important work on Bernini, Fraschetti wrote in regard to the Trevi fountain that we might well be looking at “a plagiary unprecedented in the history of art” he did not even know of the sketch now published for the first time in this book. Yet can we say he was completely wrong? Of course, the claim cannot be taken literally, since it could only truly be called “plagiary” if Salvi had actually constructed ‘sic et simpliciter’ a design by Bernini, passing it off as his own: which is not the case. It is more accurate to describe the Trevi fountain as a true 17th century work in the 18th century; as an admirable orchestration of themes by Bernini that even Bernini himself might not – other than the central group – have fashioned differently, and perhaps not even more successfully. Therefore, when the good Salvi called this fountain his “only offspring” and even the “child of his loins” he was perfectly correct; indeed, Salvi was its “mother” but it takes two to create a child and the “paternity” of the Trevi fountain, whose “genes” are particularly evident in the document that is “our” drawing, should properly be attributed to a very great man indeed: Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
We here at Garden-Fountains.com hope you've enjoyed this section on the most famous fountain of the famous fountains: The Trevi Water Feature in the City of Rome.
