Page 3: Selecting the winning design
Following their meticulous preparation in situ and "having reached such conclusions, the Fountain Committee withdrew to the room in which the 10 models were exhibited". Before I reveal the final decision of the three judges, it may be appropriate to let you know exactly how prepared they were. As it worked its way to a conclusion, their report turned Flaminio Vacca "the Roman from Rome" into a Fleming and twice mentioned a certain Bilia instead of Siila, referring to them as the artists who had made the Tritons for the Fountain of the Moor (an excusable error). However, it then went on to state that these gentlemen had been inspired "by Bernini’s idea" whereas, as we know, the Tritons had been made 76 years earlier than Bernini’s "Moor".
Armed with such vast artistic and historical knowledge, the three judges spent a long time examining and re-examining the anxious competitors’ little clay models of the fountains and finally. on 4 February 1874, after mature reflection, they announced the following decision: No. 1 - Zappala, No. 2- Della Bitta, No. 3- Maioli. Although they recognised that Maioli’s fountain model had "great merit", they found it to be "inspired by an idea which, being suitable not only for the desired location but also for other places, is not therefore comparable to or in harmony with the other fountains of Piazza Navona". So much for Maioli.
With regard to the Roman, Antonio Della Bitta, on the other hand, they accepted only that his central Neptune group was "such that one could say it is more in the fountain style of Bernini than the others". As for Gregorio Zappala (who came from Messina), the three judged that his models offered "an assured and almost delightful gaiety"; even so, having accepted the complementary groups for the sides of the fountain, they rejected the central arrangement which left "much to be desired", preferring the one by Della Bitta. I think, however, that it was a great shame, if not a real mistake, because Zappala’s design would have supplied something that is definitely missing from this square: like a good Sicilian, he had produced "a statue of a Moorish woman", a female version of the Moor. And he did it in strict accordance with the rules of the competition, which demanded that the groups "harmonise favourably" with the [male] Fountain of the Moor.
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