Four Rivers mythology: An unpublished drawing
Here I must introduce a new element into the story of the four rivers fountain: an unpublished drawing found with the original drawing of the Barberini Triton and the other copy of the two tritons and four fishes in the Lanciani Collection held by the Library of Archaeology and Art History. I will save myself and you the usual introductory description, as the design appears quite clearly in the printed reproduction. However, I do want to point out at once that, except for a few details, this sketch of the four rivers fountain is absolutely identical to the one drawn by Bernini (in the Windsor Collection) I described a moment ago; the only major difference is that the figures in the two sketches are reversed. Let’s compare the two sketches: inside the shallow fountain pool of the water feature (an essential characteristic of Bernini’s work) are two identical waterspouts in the form of dolphins holding up two identical shell-shaped basins. On the rocks (again identical in both sketches) sit two figures, but in one picture they are elderly and in the other young men, with their legs and one arm in identical positions; in our sketch the figures’ other arms are raised to support a deeply arched basin resting on top of the rocks, whereas in the drawing in the Windsor Collection their other arms hold the coat-of-arms. In addition, our sketch shows a forceful plume of water spurting from the summit of the rocks of the fountain. The differences between the two designs might be put down to the presence of the obelisk which, in taking the place of the jet of water, also meant that the heavy shell-shaped basin had to be removed; in consequence, the two male figures’ arms were lowered and, in the Windsor drawing, were then used to support the Pamphili coat-of-arms. In addition, if you look closely, you will note that the heads of the two young men are slightly raised and this too corresponds exactly to the heads of the two elderly figures; in fact, the resemblance is so close that it gives the impression that they were originally identical and, with a few hasty strokes of the pen, have simply been camouflaged into old men by the addition of beards and an odd impression of some strange hairstyles. On the basis of the evidence so far, we can be certain that the unpublished drawing is a copy (certainly in the 17th century) of a lost original by Bernini depicting the Four Rivers Fountain at an earlier stage than the drawing in the Windsor Collection.
 |
 |
 |