LA FONTANA DEL TRITONE di Bernini

Speranza

In the FONTANA DI NETTUNO E TRIOTE, in VILLA MONTALTO, the STATUARY and _WATER_ were _still_ treated, as they had been through the CINQUECENTO, as OPPOSING ELEMENTS.

BUT in Bernini's "FONTANA DEL TRITONE" the barrier between the statuary and WATER is broken down.

The WHOLE BODY of the FOUNTAIN becomes
a NATURAL FORM rising mysteriously from the
water and liable once more to be SUBMERGED.

The notion of ARCHITECTURE is _abandoned_, and the basin is a SHELL raised above the water by the unified efforts of FOUR DOLPHINS, with, in its centre, a SEA-GOD BLOWING on his conch.

The effect of this change was to LIBERATE not only the STATUARY of the fountain, but the water too.