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Bernini's Crazy Idea
Bernini had had the crazy idea - of which I shall say more in the proper place - of moving Trajan's Column to this square, in which the Column of Marcus Aurelius already stood even then. He wanted to create a tremendous "stage set" in front of the Palazzo Chigi - the family home of the reigning Pope, Alexander VII - by surrounding both columns with one huge fountain. Mufioz records that, having had his plans rejected, Bernini "limited himself to providing a sketch for a more modest pool at the foot of the column, with the figure of Ocean stretched out on the rocks". However, as we shall soon see, it was because of certain grandiose schemes that Bernini was forced, in any case, to give up this fountain and put it elsewhere. Moreover, the drawing of the fountain at the bottom of the sketch was not Bernini's invention, given that it was and is the exact plan of the present fountain, i.e. the one by Master Jacopo. For another thing, the recumbent statue leaning against a pile of large rocks in the fountain is not Ocean, but an exact likeness of the statue of Marforio. Compare it and you will see there can be no doubt at all. Now let's see where this positive identification will take us... When the fountain in Piazza Colonna was built in 1575 the statue of Marforio (which was well known throughout the whole of the Middle Ages) was still in its old location, immediately alongside the Arch of Septimus Severus; here, it had been drawn by more than one artist, with exactly the same mutilations to its arms and right foot as shown in the sketch presumed to be by Bernini or Fontana.
We know that the statue of Marforio, after a number of different ideas and adventures, was chosen to be used for a fountain on the Capitoline Hill and that Jacopo della Porta assigned the restoration to the sculptor, Ruggero Bescapè, in 1594. If you ask me, I simply cannot believe that around 1667 (Bernini), or still later (Carlo Fontana), would even dream of putting a statue on the fountain in Piazza Colonna that would reproduce the precise mutilations of a hundred years or so earlier. Therefore, with both Bernini and Fontana right out of the running, we can say that the date of the restoration also definitively establishes the latest possible date by which the sketch must have been made, which puts it before 1594. So far, I think everything I have said seems logical. Now, let's take a closer look at the sketch itself. Towards the right side of the basin there is a small group of rocks with a spray of water, very similar in design to the one Master Jacopo had placed in the centre of the "Moor" fountain. At the left side, as a change from rocks, the same hand has drawn two dolphins, one on each side of a mask - and, as we know, this too was a motif that Jacopo was planning for other fountains. Finally, right under Marforio, there is a mask flanked by two dolphins, another arrangement that is similar to those just mentioned, but one that was modified to a style more typical of della Porta in the fountain of Marforio on the Capitoline Hill. So what's my conclusion?
Jacopop della Porta & The Fountain at Piazza Colonna
The fountain at Piazza Colonna is by Jacopo della Porta and several designs were made for the Marforio Fountain before the one finally erected on the Capitoline Hill (also by Jacopo). Bearing in mind all I have said about the characteristics of that design, I see no problem in stating, clearly and calmly, that the lovely design preserved in the Codice Chigiano is no other than a rare (indeed, extremely rare) sketch by Master Jacopo himself, that it dates from 1574 and was made as part of a plan for a fountain backing onto the Column of Marcus Aurelius; but it was only ever half-built and Marforio never appeared. Bernini restored the fountain at Piazza Colonna during the pontificate of Alexander VII (1656) but it was certainly not a work of great importance. Indeed, as I have already remarked, the Pope suggested that the fountain should be moved as part of his gargantuan scheme for the Trevi Fountain which, in 1667, he proposed should be constructed here. At the time, he suggested "putting the fountain from Piazza Colonna in St. Mark's Square", i.e. in place of the other fountain on the wall of the Palazzetto Venezia which, as you may or may not be aware, originally formed an angle with the great Palazzo Venezia, stretching out almost to the centre of what is today's Piazza Venezia; unfortunately, in 1911 it was moved back to make room for that huge white "castle" known as the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. The last major restoration of this fountain was ordered by Clement XI (Albani) in 1702 at the hands of G. B. Contini, the architect of the works for the Aqua Vergine; the only alteration was the addition of the 8-pointed star of the papal emblem, perhaps above the elegant old basin in the centre. The star was removed at a later date.
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