The Water Source for the Arno and Mugnone Wall Fountains
The water for the Arno and Mugnone wall fountains came from two wall fountains in the wall of the garden just behind that of the Labyrinth, where Tribolo had planned to set up figures personifying the nearby mountains Asinaio and Falterone, in which the respective rivers had their sources. The Asinaio was to have been represented as wringing out his beard into the basin below wall fountains in a novel, if somewhat bizarre, fountain motif. Unfortunately these statues were never completed; in the lunette of 1599, the tall niches covered with stalactites which appear in the rear garden, on either side of the entrance to the grotto, remain empty, save for a simple water spout and basin, located unsually low in relation to the wall fountain. During the years that Tribolo was working on wall fountains in the Medicean gardens at Castello, he made for the adjoining villa of Cristofano Rinieri a third river god of the same gray sandstone, for a wall fountain of the single niche type which stood at the end of a pool.
The water fell from his urn into a huge stone basin decorated with lions' heads. This statue has survived in its original site, now the Villa Corsini; but today it stands in a niche of another period and has been separated from its basin, which forms part of a baroque fountain. Again we feel the influence of Michelangelo; the dynamic pose of the river god recalls certain Ignudi of the Sistine ceiling. The almost Scopasian expressiveness of the head was probably inspired by the ancient Roman statue known as "Pasquino," but has certainly been heightened by long exposure to the elements. The water fell from the urn set between the legs of the figure into the great basin, with its curving lip and rather baroque profile, which probably reflects the form of those designed for the wall fountains of the Arno and Mugnone, which flanked two decorative birdbaths.
The background of the original niche (if not its entire surface) must have been composed of stalactites like those which still adhere to legs and urn. This statue adds to the iconography of the Renaissance wall fountain a new motif; the seated river god. Previously these deities of the streams had been represented in the recumbent position of their classical prototypes; indeed, this rather static pose remained the usual formula throughout the sixteenth century. Since Tribolo carved these wall fountains during the time that he was employed at the Medicean villa of Castello, it must be dated between the year 1538, when the work on the gardens of Castello was commenced under Cosimo I, and 1550, the year of Tribolo's death, and probably falls within the early forties.
 |
 |
 |