A Sculpted Florentine Wall Fountain
The tapping of the Acqua Vergine on the Via Flaminia also made possible the loveliest outdoor wall fountain of the Renaissance, the nymphaeum or formal grotto built in 1550-1555 beneath the second courtyard of the Villa Giulia, not far from the public fountain just discussed. Vasari tells us that the original design was his own, but that Ammannati carried it to completion; and in fact it has been traditionally known as the "Fonte di Ammannati." The low level of the Acqua Vergine at this point necessitated a sunken fountain; hence Vasari's name for it, "Fonte Bassa," or "low outdoor wall fountain." It is impossible to consider this outdoor wall fountain apart from its setting, since, unlike the usual Florentine fountain, it forms part of a great architectural scheme, serving as the culminating motif in an ensemble rather than as a distinct entity.
A seventeenth century engraving conveys something of the original effect of the outdoor wall fountain. The great court is in two stories, membered with pilasters, separated by arched niches of varying sizes. These were once filled with ancient statues, described in Ammannati's letter to his former patron Marco Benavides, but now long since removed to the papal museums. In the center of the upper courtyard is a mistilinear opening surrounded by a balustrade, from which one looks down upon a sunken court containing the F'onte Bassa. Here all the niches contained minor fountains with figures set against backgrounds of artificial rockwork and maidenhair ferns, their jets feeding the outdoor wall fountain that surrounds the rich pavement, inlaid with variegated marbles. The farther end of this lower court extends in the center to form a semicircular exedra, repeating in ground plan the combination of straight and curving lines. Four lovely caryatids of white marble support the balustrade above, which takes up the mistilinear motif once more. These marble statues personify the outdoor wall fountains of the source, the Acqua Vergine.
Their figures, conventionalized to suit their architectural function, stand at the entrance to the deeply recessed nymphaeum of three niches, whose cool darkness is a pleasant foil to the brilliant white of their marble. On the outdoor wall fountain behind each caryatid is a similar figure in mezzo rilievo. The arched niches within the grotto are covered with stucco rocaille and maidenhair fern. Two of them were originally decorated with figures of putti, pouring the water into the outdoor wall fountain from urns held on their shoulders; the swan of the central niche still remains. The engraving also shows, in the niches on either side of the grotto, groups of three little boys, the central ones emptying urns. These putti, carved by Ammannati himself, were particularly admired. Perhaps the little outdoor wall fountain which he carved for the balustrades of two chapels in San Pietro in Montorio during the same period, though naturally more sedate, reveal something of their charm.
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