Examples of the Formal Grotto Movement
Another example of the formal grotto fountain, marking the rear axis of the Medicean Villa of Poggio a Caiano, is commonly attributed to the architect of that villa, Giuliano da Sangallo. The centerpiece is a grouping of large outdoor wall fountains. The grotto stands between two converging flights of stairs, and is prefaced by four pagan figures. Perhaps the interior originally contained other Bacchic figures; but today the three niches stand stripped of all decoration. Only the remains of pipes for surprise jets of the outdoor wall fountains in the pebbled pavement indicate that the recess once served as a grotto. The style of the sieni seems much too free for a Quattrocentist; surely they date from the second half of the Cinquecento. May not Ammannati, who executed other caryatids on a chimney piece within the villa, also have been responsible for these figures? Soon after the death of Julius III in 1555, Ammannati returned to Florence, where he received the commission from Cosimo I for the outdoor wall fountains at the end of the Sala del Gran Consiglio of the Palazzo Vecchio, opposite the one Bandinelli had already constructed.
In the center there was to be great outdoor wall fountains decorated with marble figures. Ammannati at once prepared the design and began to execute the statues; but the wall fountain was never installed in the Palazzo Vecchio. In its stead Cosimo set at that end of the great hall the Victory of Michelangelo, bequeathed to him shortly after that sculptor's death in 1564. About 1579 we find the next duke, Francesco dei Medici, inquiring about the statues, which he later installed in his favorite villa at Pratolino over a freestanding fountain! Francesco's successor in 1587, Ferdinando, seems also to have taken a fancy to the wall fountain, for he had it transferred to the Pitti Palace. In 1588 the workmen were busy preparing the statues for their new location, the terrace above the grotto of the great courtyard, looking toward the amphitheater of the Boboli Garden.
There they were installed about 1590, over isolated outdoor wall fountains, which stood until 1639, when it was replaced by Francesco Susini's Fountain of the Artichokes. Once it was dismantled, the statues became scattered, and at length their connection with the outdoor wall fountains was completely forgotten. Indeed, it remained but a series of vague references in the literature until, a few years ago, Dr. Giovanni Poggi identified the five surviving statues, and Dr. Friedrich Kriegbaum, in a brilliant monograph on the fountain, traced its checkered career, and published its scattered members. The reconstructions at Pratolino and Boboli need not detain us, since they have nothing to do with Ammannati's original design.
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