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A Different Kind of Roman Fountain
Indeed, for this fountain he set aside his usual style completely and made a determined effort to introduce Rome to a different kind of fountain, a kind whose best, and best known, examples I would call "Florentine": by which I mean that more importance is placed on art than architecture. Even a cursory examination will reveal that his model was the famous statue of Neptune, created by Ammannati in the period 1563-75, in Piazza della Signoria in Florence. There is no doubt that the best features of that particular fountain - known as "il Biancone" ["the big white one"] because of the enormous and unfortunate statue of Neptune standing stiffly on top of the heavy chariot he is driving through the middle of the vast and ponderous pool - are the bronze groups surrounding the base. These are four pairs of satyrs and fauns, surmounted by another large statue, also in bronze. The inspiration for the Fountain of the Tortoises comes from the life-like positions Ammannati gave to the satyrs and fauns: two in particular, with their legs raised alternately, bear a close resemblance to the alternating sequence of arms and legs of the ephebes [young men] on the Roman fountain.
The architectural properties of the Neptune fountain and of late 16th century Florentine fountains in general are almost non-existent, or are there as part of the aesthetic sculpture, but this is not the case with della Porta's Fountain of the Tortoises. Here, although the sculpture always takes precedence, he never forgets that he is building a fountain, which requires, indeed, demands architectural features whose form is dependent upon the essential element of the whole: the water itself. Hence, in contrast with the fountain in Florence, in which the water is almost accidental, della Porta has made an attempt to justify the presence of the four youths by putting them into a plausible architectural setting. The inspiration drawn from the Florentine fountain marks an interesting stage in della Porta's career as a designer of fountains. On the one hand, he has combined two very diverse types of experience - the importance of the architectural qualities of the Roman fountain and the predominant artistic characteristics of the Florentine model - and, on the other hand, he has progressed from the custom, in both cases, of separating the artistic and architectural features from the water. In so doing, he has achieved an entirely new creation, the fountain proper, in which both container and content form a single, homogeneous and complementary whole; the water is the reason for the sculpture and the sculpture justifies the water's presence.
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