Simple Fountains Commissioned by Private Citizens
So, for this work, Fontana did no more than supply a few “bits of old junk” stripped from Settizonio, a strange, very tall building on the side of the Palatine Hill opposite the Appian Way, which Sixtus V demolished; and, as the same document shows, it seems that the idea for these fountains sprang from the mind of that same noble Muzio who – you will no doubt remember – succeeded in having the Fountain of the Tortoises, originally planned and destined for Piazza Giudea in the ghetto, built right outside his house instead. There is yet another piece of evidence on the subject, from the lovable antique dealer-cum-sculptor and diarist Flaminio Vacca who, in 1594, wrote as follows (Memorie, 37): “I remember, in the road that starts from Monte Cavallo and goes to Porta Pia, where at the time of Sixtus V four fountains were made, that one of them belongs to Mutio Matthei”. Far more important than Flaminio’s evidence, however, is a little series of handwritten documents – grants made by the pope – which, even if they shed no light on the sculptors of these four fountains, at least establish their dates.
The first is from 25 June 1588. In it, Sixtus V granted “Muzio Mattei the return on two fountains in Via Felice and Porta Pia. Gift for having himself made the said two fountains”. These are the one at the corner of the present Palazzo del Drago [Dragon House], where Muzio’s house stood in those days; and another much further away (at Porta Pia), which I cannot identify and which in any case has nothing to do with this chapter. In a second manuscript, dated 11 August 1588, Sixtus V granted Muzio (there he is again!) “four ounces for his garden in Via Felice. Paid 300 scudi and 300 scudi given as a gift in compensation for the expenses incurred for the two Fountains in Strada Felice”. So far, that makes three of the fountains at our crossroads that were built at the expense of the noble Mr. Mattei. With regard to the fourth, a final manuscript, dated 4 June 1593 (so it’s no longer by Sixtus V, but by Clement VIII) gave one and a half ounces of water to a certain Giacomo Gridenzoni “for having made at his expense one of the Four Fountains”. Above the four basins and set into their respective niches, are four reclining figures made of travertine. Though I wouldn’t like to swear definitely to the last two, the statues depict: on the corner of the church of S. Carlo, the River Tiber, with the usual she-wolf suckling the usual founders of Rome; on the corner of the Palazzo del Drago (formerly the site of the Mattei family’s garden), the River Nile; toward Palazzo Barberini, a woman with a dog representing Faithfulness; and the last, another woman leaning on a lion, with a goose (or swan) at her feet, representing Fortitude. Since these fountains were commissioned by private citizens, we may never know who actually created them, but perhaps it’s better that way, because they really are very simple.
Nonetheless, there is something we can be sure of: the unknown architects and sculptors of the two scenes that back the reclining figures of the two rivers (and, for the sake of symmetry, those behind the two women) were inspired by similar fountains of the Arno and the Tiber built about twenty years earlier in the grounds of the “Vigna” belonging to Pope Julius III, out on the Via Flaminia. However, for all their simplicity, these four sleepy reclining statues, so aloof yet keeping a sly watch on us poor overstressed humans, give this place a special atmosphere of privacy and endow it with such a significance that – with the marvellous views at the end of each of the four streets – I would be very hard pushed indeed to name its equal anywhere else in the world. Though please forgive me if you can think of anywhere better. Back to the Fountains of Rome Home Page