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If asked to explain this concept by choosing one or two of the Roman fountains I would first select the beautiful fountain at the Pantheon, though I would have to discount the central super structure that was added later. Despite this fountain's graceful lines and the irony of its masks, its architectural value would prevail even if the water stopped flowing (which, in any case, happens often enough). However, if the water ceased to flow from della Porta's fountain in Piazza Ara Cœli (though his work was later altered) who could doubt that the spell cast by the fountain would vanish instantly? The reason being, that in this example, container and content were designed for each other. To return to the Tortoises (which, as fans of Rome often say perceptively, used to disappear now and then): did Jacopo succeed in his first attempt at something new with this fountain? As we saw from the corner of via de' Funari, the first impression of the little fountain is excellent, but as we draw nearer this first good impression gradually changes, and certainly not for the better. Apart from the four delicately carved bronze youths (originally intended to 54 be made of "beautiful white marble"), we are astonished by the discord and disproportion of the arrangement as a whole.
Badly Integrated Ideas and Designs?
The fountain seems to be the result of a compilation of poorly digested and therefore badly integrated ideas and designs and the effort to reconcile the significance apportioned to the two, almost competing, elements of art and architecture is very nearly tangible. The large diversity of marbles used reminds one of the Neptune Fountain in Florence. The base is in porphyry, the four large shells in portasanta and the vase in veined African marble, connected at the top to a white marble cartouche. The shells themselves are huge in proportion to the whole, and extremely heavy in relation to the four lithe and slender ephebes, which are referred to in an anonymous Roman's 18th century manuscript as "the four lads". We get the same impression of heaviness and disproportion from the enormous pedestal vase which, in the midst of the four statues, holds up a tiny basin of dull grey African marble beneath which the faces of four small cherubs struggle to survive above the water in the basin below. However, the one truly positive feature to which this fountain owes its reputation (which mistakes the part for the whole) is that of the "four lads" and these, as has been rightly said, endow an extraordinary air of elegance and liveliness to the little fountain, despite the fact that they are of a single pattern, repeated four times over. As mentioned by the unknown Roman author already quoted above, "whilst grabbing the tail of one of the four dolphins with one hand each lad has one foot holding down its head; with the other hand each holds up a tortoise to help it drink from the top of the fountain, and the dolphins, lads and tortoises are all made of bronze". As is evident from the contract with Landini and from a number of prints, the four Tortoises were not part of the original design but were added during the restoration of the fountain ordered by Alexander VII in 1658, which is recorded in four very short inscriptions on the back of the base of the fountain.
Though there is no specific documentation to bear this out, I think it is fairly certain that the inspired invention can be attributed to Bernini who, as well as being the undisputed "master" of Rome's fountains, had, long before, placed four tortoises on his fountain at Palazzo Barberini. But why would Bernini think of putting four tortoises in that exact place? If you go as close to the fountain as possible, you will see that the youths' hands, which seem to be pushing up the tortoises, in fact are several centimetres away. So, if you think of the fountain as it was before Bernini - without the tortoises - you will see that to have the hands so far from the upper basin could not have failed to astonish the onlooker; the effect would have been even more peculiar because the strange position of all four youths is identical. Do you think the "four lads" were giving a synchronised greeting to the tourists? If that's not the reason, then why have them in this strange position with all their hands the same distance from the basin of the fountain? The answer is found in the "clauses and conditions" referred to earlier, in which Jacopo dictated the precise specifications for work on the fountain. After the description of the two steps (which no longer exist) around the pool, the four shells and the pedestal for the upper water basin, we find "Eight dolphins in mixed stone". As we know, the dolphins, like the youths, were made in bronze instead of marble, but here we have eight dolphins whereas the fountain only has four, each with a young man's foot on its head. I therefore conclude, without any doubt, that although orders were given for eight "fish" and four were placed beneath the youths' feet in accordance with the plans, the other four were too heavy for the upraised hands of those same youths to push toward the basin and so, being inedible, they were used for the fountain that appears in the next section.
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