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And there’s another thing about this fountain … it would be a very strange aesthetic and conservational principle that moved a sculpture from one location to another because its condition had deteriorated or it had been too greatly restored. Since we’re on the subject of Villa Borghese, let’s pause for a moment in that same little square. Here, arranged modestly around a porphyry basin full of mossy water are four masks acting as spouts. These masks too are the originals from the Fountain of the Moor, relegated along with the four Tritons and also replaced by copies made by Amici.
You will remember that in looking at the fountain beside the Pantheon I said that Master Jacopo had ordered eight masks based on his model from a group of at least five different artists, intending them for the splendid fountains in Piazza Navona. The result was, with four of the Tritons placed alternately between four of the masks in the Fountain of the Moor, della Porta was short of another four Tritons for the Neptune Fountain. For some reason, the "Congregation" did not want more Tritons made so the four remaining masks, which alone would not been sufficiently ornamental, ended up as part of the fountain beside the Pantheon.
Each of these odd-looking masks on the fountain , a gigantic face with hair in a topknot, and flanked by two lively dolphins on a shell, bears a wingèd dragon. This is the dragon of the Boncompagni coat-of-arms and the only reference to the Pope who erected so many fountains at this time: Gregory XIII. Finally, returning to the fountain in Piazza Navona, the decoration in the centre of the basin was very modest, a simple group of rocks with the water spurting over the top.
So this ends the description – or should I say the reconstruction – of the first stage of the fountain in Piazza Navona, for which Maser Jacopo created his design. No doubt, with the sinuous lines of the basin, repeated in the two steps and balustrade that surrounded it, and with its fine statues and ironically comical masks it would have been a far more elegant and beautiful fountain. And now I’d like to move on – if you are ready and don’t want to read something a bit easier before proceeding – to the subsequent "adventures" of our fountain, in which it underwent the decisive changes that were to make it one of the most beautiful things there is to see in Rome.
In August 1623, a new pope, Urban VIII (Barberini) was elected. One of the first public steps he made, by deed of "motu proprio" on 12 September that year, was to appoint Pietro Bernini – the father of Gian Lorenzo – to the important position of Architect for the Fountains of the Aqua Vergine; and in a handwritten document dated 7 October, he granted the young Gian Lorenzo the post of "Superintendent of the cisterns and fountains of the Aqua Felice", probably at a salary of 5 scudi per month.
Moreover, towards the end of 1625, Pope Urban made a gracious gift "to the said son Gian Lorenzo [Bernini], soldier in Christ’s army" of the post – for life – of "Commissioner of fountains, that is Auditor of the conduits of the fountains in Piazza Navona", i.e. the two fountains we are concerned with, as the middle one did not yet exist. Such an appointment broke all the rules because, as stated in the motu proprio, this office was usually the prerogative of "the beloved sons, the Conservatori del Popolo Romano [Chief Administrators of Rome]", so Pope Urban may well have intended to do the young, but already very well known, Gian Lorenzo a special favor, giving him power over the public fountains.
Nonetheless, I hasten to add that from a financial point of view, the favor must have left the artist rather perplexed, given that his predecessor in the same post (the painter Tommaso Salini, who had just died) had been paid 10 scudi per month, whereas Bernini himself was only paid five. From his two official posts watching over the fountains, Gian Lorenzo therefore received a total of 10 scudi a month, to which were added the gifts in kind which, as was customary at the time, were distributed by law to employees. If you would like to know to what generous gifts Bernini was entitled, I shall be happy to inform you. Unearthing a manuscript in the Vatican, we see that he hade "Four large loaves a day: two papaline [literally, "skullcaps", a kind of egg-enriched bread] and two a decina [common bread made in the shape of 10 rolls stuck together]; two biscuits and two doughnuts. Two jugs of wine a day from the private cellar and one from the common cellar".
So, on a diet of bread and wine (and water from his fountains), with a salary of 10 scudi a month – not a high wage, but dependable and augmented by what he got for building houses and churches and carving out his statues – Gian Lorenzo Bernini began his public career "in the fountain department". I say "public" for – as we shall see in due course – he had already proved himself admirably in 1622-23 with the marvellous group of "Neptune and Glauce" in the celebrated "Pool of the Nymphs" at the massive fountain of Villa Montalto, which Domenico Fontana built for Sixtus V around 1580. It was this work, with its dazzling proof of his passionate vocation for water and fountains, that procured him the two "official appointments" to Urban VIII.
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