Public Water Fountains Built with Private Funds
To return to the fountain at Piazza dei Santi Apostoli: for some reason, the first project, with the Aqua Vergine, was never implemented so this location was included in the list for the Aqua Felice. This time work not only started, but must have proceeded rapidly if, in 1590, Master Giorgio Rusconi received 400 scudi “on account of the conduit and the constructions made from it to carry the water from Monte Cavallo to Santo Apostolo and on account of the basins for the fountain [already] made and [yet] to be manufactured”. Nevertheless, although the fountain was already partly built, once again the decision was shelved. Three more years passed, then, in 1593, when it appeared on the City Authorities’ agenda for the third time, they decided “to remove the fountain from Aracoeli and erect it at Sant’Apostoli using the same mortars”. So, just when it seemed that the Colonna family had finally won (against the Muti family, since the Aracoeli fountain was – and is – in front of their townhouse at the foot of the Capitoline Hill), the decision was once again questioned and rejected at the next Public Council meeting.
Quite a while later, in the spring of 1667, the old and seemingly insoluble problem raised its head again. This time, it was Pope Alexander VII who suggested [transferring] “this fountain here at Monte Cavallo to Piazza S. Apostoli”. As we shall see in the next chapter, the pontiff wanted to rearrange the Dioscuri [Castor and Pollux] in the square outside the Quirinale Palace and had the idea of moving the fountain that stood between the two gigantic statues on Montecavallo to a place “facing the door” of the Church of the Santi Apostoli. I cannot say if there were any more failed attempts to obtain a fountain for this lovely square, but even if it never got its fountain the piazza has nowadays become a huge car park. Maybe that’s some compensation for the noble ideas to which it once aspired. Now, it’s really about time I got down to the main subject of this chapter, so come with me to one of the most distinctive crossroads in Rome: the place where Via XX Settembre (formerly “Strada Pia”, built by Pope Pius IV) meets Via delle Quattro Fontane which, when Sixtus V had it opened up, was in fact called “Via [or Strada] Felice”. Indeed, from this point, away at the far end of the first of these roads you can see Porta Pia, the old city gate designed by Michelangelo; to the right is the obelisk Sixtus V had erected at Santa Maria Maggiore; behind you, the obelisk in front of the Quirinale Palace rises between the gigantic statues of Castor and Pollux and, on the left you can see the Sallustian obelisk at Trinità de’ Monti.
So there you have the view enjoyed by our Four Fountains which, though the first to be supplied with Aqua Felice (being close to the Moses Fountain, they were the next to follow), do not appear in the list mentioned above, because they were not built at public expense or even funded by the Papal Council but, as we shall see, were paid for by a number of private individuals using their own money. First and foremost, I must quash the generally held but mistaken belief that these fountains, despite their simplicity and exceptional ugliness, were built or designed by Domenico Fontana. For one thing, Fontana never makes any reference to these four fountains, neither in the documents now preserved in the State Archives, nor in his book (mentioned on p.87 above), which contained an extremely detailed list of all that he demolished or constructed in Rome. For another, there is further documentary proof which makes it plain that he had nothing to do with this project. This is a specific order from Sixtus V, dated 23 May 1589, which reads: “Cavalier Domenico Fontana, you will consign to Mutio Matthei or to such other as he shall instruct five pieces of peperino from those brought from Settizonio, which We give to him for use in his fountains at Strada Felice and Strada Pia”. More on the Four Fountains