And One Built for Paolo Strada
Three Vanished Fountains and One Built for Paolo Strada
Even though these fountains have been lost and were never available to the public but existed in the courtyards of private houses or the grounds of villas, I think you will forgive me if I make an exception and write a little about them, since they still relate to Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Around 1648, Duke Girolamo Mattei, who had seen Barberini's splendid Triton water fountain, decided that he wanted Gian Lorenzo Bernini to make him something similar for his Caelian Hill villa, which today is called Celimontana. According to the only piece of evidence -- an engraving by Venturini -- the architect placed a similar Triton at the end of one of the avenues, though this one was perhaps much more lively: sitting on three or four scaly sea monsters whose necks and heads stretched out from a mass of rocks half-submerged in the low, rustic circular pool, he lashed his tails and, holding his conch in his right hand, blew water into the air.
The engraving clearly shows two "porters" at the entrance to this avenue, each holding a little barrel with water falling into a small basin identical in design to the one around the Triton fountain. I believe these two little "porters" are also the work of Bernini, copied in their entirety from the magnificent model in Via Lata.
A second fountain to note, also in villa Mattei and also built around 1648, was the one called "Olympus," which is known to us from another of Venturini's engravings and from the following description by Baldinucci: "In another fountain made for Duke Girolamo Mattei's famous villa near the Navicella in Rome he wanted to do something grand and majestic, but the water would not rise very far. So he made an imaginary Mount Olympus, with an eagle flying over the top, a clever reference to the Mattei coat-of-arms. He used the mountain to portray the clouds which, unable to reach the summit of Olympus, sent down rain from where they were."
The inspiration for this fountain is also obvious: the rustic Eagle Fountain in the Vatican; but Bernini embellished -- or should I say, encumbered -- his model with what by now had become his customary heavy repertoire: three gigantic dolphins, all in a row, using their tails to hold up the usual open shell from which the enormously outsized eagle is drinking. This fountain has vanished, but perhaps we are not missing much.
The third vanished fountain demonstrating again that Bernini's creations were always makeovers of other people's designs is the one he carved between 1653 and 1671 for Cardinal Anton Barberino near the Bastions. This fountain, while having very little water and the finest of sprays, featured a woman who, after she had washed her hair, wrings it out so that as much water comes out as the fountain can provide to put action into the figure. As well using Giambologna's (Jean de Boulogne) "Venus wringing out her hair" (which still exists in the Villa della Petraia, Florence) as his model, Bernini also had in mind the sculpture by Valerio Cioli in the Boboli Gardens of the "Woman washing a young boy's hair."
Before I move on to the much more complex and interesting account of the grandiose central fountain in Piazza Navona, I want to step off the time line and clear the way by dealing with a modest courtyard fountain, one of the last Bernini built. The expression I used at the outset in connection with some of Bernini's fountains -- "lively monotony " -- is particularly suitable for this fountain. Here we find a repetition of all his favorite themes: the two bad-tempered tritons breathlessly blowing water from their conches, two dolphins with their tails in the air holding up the usual open shell, and the whole surrounded by the customary rocky border.
This fountain, backing onto the boundary wall of a fairly narrow courtyard garden now looks more like a well and has been completely abandoned. It was built for an individual called Paolo Strada, at the house on his estate on the road Paul V opened up at the foot of the Quirinale Hill. At that time the road was called "Strada Nuova." Today it is Via della Panetteria and the house is number 15.
Mr. Strada, who had been major-domo and private servant to Clement IX (1667-69) ever since he was still Cardinal Rospigliosi, received grants of water from his patron as a reward for his long and faithful service. In manuscripts expressly written by the Pope himself, Strada was granted, first, in October 1667, three ounces of Aqua Felice and then two more, in July 1669. On both occasions Bernini himself was responsible for installing the water, and the modest little fountain was no doubt constructed between these two dates. As can be seen from his own sketch and from another engraving by Venturini, Bernini decorated the fountain with the Rospigliosi pope's family crest, but this was later adapted to the present one, the arms of the Counts of Antamoro, who bought the building in the 18th century. The ancient fountain still exists, reduced to a pitiful condition.