Central Theme of the Trevi Fountain: The Colossal Neptune in his Chariot
It would be more useful to discuss the question of the statues in the Trevi fountain. Apart from the four female figures at the top, which do not represent the seasons but “the effects of rain and the fecundity of the Earth caused by watering”, which were sculpted exactly as the architect wanted them, and the other two female statues below the bas-reliefs (to which I shall return later), the major difficulty Salvi had to face was the group in the centre: the colossal Neptune in his chariot, with the two horses and their respective tritons. The problem was not technical, but an almost insoluble argument with the sculptor employed to carve them: Gian Battista Maini.
This sculptor, who imitated the style of Bernini, was in his day much better known and much more important than the modest Salvi and he held the important position of “Prince” of the Accademia di San Luca for two consecutive years (1746 and 1747).
There is a very interesting and unpublished letter about the dispute, dictated by Salvi himself and addressed to Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, the Pope’s nephew and Superintendent for Buildings. The letter can be dated to 1740. Please read it very carefully because, in addition to the dispute, Nicola reveals that his powers were surprisingly limited, something we would not expect from the architect of such a huge project. “I wish to lay before your eyes and for Your Eminence’s attention these few reflections on how to express the “Neptune group”, which is the main theme I have introduced into the Trevi fountain, though I justly fear this may bring upon me the accusation either of taking too much upon myself and going too far in my operations, or of being too zealous, as if I wanted to exceed my remit as Architect and step unscrupulously into another’s province by opposing a Professor who is so celebrated for the number and perfection of his works – I who, so to speak, am only now beginning to emerge from my private labors and from the walls of my studio to make my name known to the Public.
Yet I must in part condemn what Mr. Franco Maini, the worthy professor chosen to create the said group, has decided to do. But what [else] could I do if Mr. Maini, by choosing to arrange the group in a way that (if I am allowed to say so) is the exact opposite of fair and decent, has made it necessary to upset the position I had established for the rocks and the water falling from them; and if, when I several times put to him, personally and in private, all those reasons that justified my decision, these not only met with disfavor, not only went totally unconsidered despite being based strictly upon fundamental principles, but were not even refuted – as is the way of reasonable experts – with other observations, if only of a kind to inform me of errors I may easily have made and of the grounds for his preference which, certain of my own abilities, I may not have realized for myself. Next Page...
