FONTANE DI ROMA

Speranza


In Roma, fountain design was the preserve of architects, not sculptors, and fountains were thought of mainly in architectural terms.

EVEN the beautiful fountain at LORETO was originally planned (1604) by FONTANA and MADERNO WITHOUT figure sculpture.

In a few exceptional cases, a sculptural COMPONENT was envisaged from the start.

This was the case with the

FOUNTAIN OF THE TORTOISES

-- the most distinguished Roman fountain of its time, which resulted from the collaboration (1585) between GIACOMO DELLA PORTA and the Florentine sculptor LANDINI.

It is a work of graet elegance and charm, in which the architecture and thefigure sculpture co-exist but are NOT satisfactorily merged.