The River God Italian Wall Fountains were of heroic size
The river gods fountains were of heroic size, each measuring four braccia in length (almost eight feet!), and were carved from a grayish sandstone ("pietra bigia"). His description of the poses of these garden statues is of special interest. The Mugnone reclined, bearing his urn on one shoulder, resting the other arm upon the ground, and crossing his left leg over his right; while the companion figure of the Arno rested his urn upon his thigh, leaning his arm upon the Florentine lion holding a lily. The recumbent position of these garden statues was of course based on that of the classical river gods of the Belvedere; but a more involved treatment of the limbs seems implied by the phrase which Vasari uses of the Mugnone, " Raccolta in bellissima attitudine."
This is borne out by the representation on the lunette fountain of the Arno, the only one of the two figures to appear at all clearly. This complication of the calm classical pose is undoubtedly due to the influence of Michelangelo's reclining figures in the Medici Chapel, of which Tribolo had made small copies in clay only a few years before. The discovery in the Boboli (Jarden of a portion of the relief which once decorated the arched recess of the Fountain of the Mugnone tends to corroborate this hypothesis concerning the Michel-angelesque style of the statues; for the robust form, involved pose, and elaborate contrapposto of the figure personifying the city of Fiesole, a fountain arising from the rocks with the moon beneath her arm, clearly betray the influence of Tribolo's great master. In many ways these wall fountains, with their reclining figures, oblong basins, and architectural framework, follow the type designed by Michelangelo for the Fountain of the Tigris in the Belvedere; but in the latter, the naturalistic effect of a rocky cave was confined to the interior of the niche, leaving the wall fountains with a severely plain appearance. In the two fountains at Castello, on the other hand, not only were the slabs of grayish sandstone which formed the backgrounds of the niches carved to simulate stalactites, as in the fragmentary block of the Fiesole, but the entire enframement of the niche was covered with actual stalactites of the type used in contemporary rustic fountains.
Three of these are now preserved in the Museo Nazionale at Florence. This is undoubtedly the "Tuscan work covered with stalactites," of which Vasari speaks in a passage on fountains in the introduction to the Lives; for in the same section, discussing the types of natural stalactites used in rustic fountains, he specifically mentions the variety used by Duke Cosimo in his garden at Castello "in the rustic ornaments of the wall fountains made by Tribolo the sculptor." Before each wall fountain extended an oblong basin, sustained by two capricorns, festooned with garlands and masks. The water, falling from the urn of the river god, overflowed through the indentations at the ends of the basin, issuing through the mouths of the goats. With the help of the scholar and poet, Benedetto Varchi, Tribolo had devised an elaborate allegory to link these fountains with the adjoining ones, with which their conduits were connected.
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