Located in the Crowded Colonna Arcade
This is without doubt the most chaotic spot for a fountain in Rome, besieged by cars, buses and motorbikes and almost swallowed up by the steps of the nearby underpass that leads to the ever crowded Colonna Arcade where, especially when elections are looming, knots of people are always getting worked up, arguing and shouting (rightly or wrongly) about their own causes, and even the cascading sounds of water from the fountains cannot drown them out. In the words of a famous person who is no longer with us, I would go so far as to say that the fountain is a place where "anyone who stops for a moment doesn't stand a chance". Yet here there is a modest little fountain - and I don't honestly know how many Romans have bothered to look at fountain even once; trying anxiously and in vain to attract and interest some wretched passerby, if only for a few seconds.
Modest in Size for a Roman Fountain
By "modest", I mean only in size compared to other fountains, especially when compared to the dazzling height of the Column of Marcus Aurelius that has kept it company, only a few feet away, for four centuries or more. In fact, the elongated lines of the lip and of the pool of the fountain as a whole are extremely delicate and fluid and, combined with the use of portasanta marble that rims the fountain, make this one of the most successful and spontaneous of della Porta's fountains, particularly when you consider the almost total lack of sculpture and ornamentation. There are 16 roughly outlined lion's heads beneath the lip of the pool, for which the sculptor was paid one scudo per head, and a charming, segmented central basin - the one we see now, in white marble - and the two pairs of dolphins with tails entwined inside the shells are by Alessandro Stocchi; they replaced four small pyramids that used to be at the sides of the basin in 1830.
Otherwise, this fountain at Piazza Colonna has never had any other kind of decoration. As with the fountain at the Pantheon, the contract for this one - drawn up as usual by a notary, this time between Rocco Rossi (or de Rossi), a sculptor from Fiesole and "the illustrious gentlemen officers for the fountains" - stated that the latter had not yet decided in which square and in which exact location the fountain was to be erected. That was on 16 January 1575. On 24 March, another contract with the same fountain craftsman ordered a short flight of three steps (no longer in existence), to be made of travertine stone, "brand new, without protrusions or any kind of shoddiness and cut to even measure". Master Rocco's completion date, for the fountain and for the steps, was set as "before the end of September next" (i.e. 1575) and in fact, in keeping with the ages old tradition that still goes on today, he finished the work well on time - exactly two years later. I hope I am not mistaken when I say that only part of the drawing shown has ever been published before. Mufioz was the first to publish the top section, which he attributed to Bernini. More recently, in their fundamental study of Bernini's fountain designs, Brauer and Wittkower refuted the attribution, without explanation, and assigned it to Carlo Fontana instead. We shall see who is right.
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