The Tortoise Fountain as inspiration
So far we have seen how, as for almost all his fountains, Bernini required a starting point for the four rivers fountain, an existing fountain to give him inspiration. Now, we can ask the same question about the Four Rivers: How much of it was Bernini’s own idea? The key to the answer lies in that unpublished drawing: this time, for his new construction, the artist used the Tortoise Fountain as his source. If you compare that fountain and the drawing, you will see there is no room for doubt. The modifications Bernini made to his design are really much smaller than they appear at first sight. Jacopo della Porta allowed himself to be influenced by his Florentine associate Taddeo Landini so that, in contrast to his usual architectural fountains, the Tortoise Fountain relies a little too much on the sculptures; Bernini, on the other hand, not only achieves a better proportion between sculpture and architecture but substitutes an interesting in the round creation of rocks and fissures for the cold and almost non-existent architecture of the Tortoise Fountain. Whereas there, there is hardly any justification for the statues of the four young men, here Gian Lorenzo does at least give them the task (though not very convincingly) of holding up the basin trying to disguise itself as a shell. Lastly, there is one important alteration that makes the composition more energetic: whilst the four dolphins in the Tortoise Fountain are squashed in between the young men and the shells below and play a decidedly minor role, Bernini enlarges them enormously, making them underpin the whole structure and brings them to life with some vigorous jets of water.
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