Sea-horse

by Jamart Photography

Title

Sea-horse

Artist

Jamart Photography

Medium

Photograph - Art Photography

Description

FAA5517
The Fountain of Neptune
Piazza Navona
Rome Italy
2016

It was once called "Fontana dei Calderari" because it was located close to a small alley with blacksmith's workshops, makers of pots and pans and of other metal based businesses, all of them generating heat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Neptune,_Rome


At the northern end of Piazza Navona, on the opposite side of the Fontana del Moro, sits the Neptune Fountain, also known in Italian as the Fontana del Nettuno.
The monumental complex was designed in 1574 by Giacomo della Porta, who had also designed the basin of the Fontana del Moro. The work was sponsored by Pope Gregory XIII.

However, the group sculpture came only later in 1878…

Hence, the fountain survived for 300 years without sculptures, which were created by Gregorio Zappalà and Antonio della Bitta, who designed respectively the mythological subject of “Nereids with cupids and horses”, and “Neptune fighting with an octopus”, with the purpose of balancing and harmonizing it with the Fontana del Moro and the Fountain of the Four Rivers.
In Gregorio Zappalà’s design, you can spot sea monsters, mermaids and cupids playing with dolphins. At the center of the fountain you can admire the Neptune by Antonio della Bitta, featured with its trident and wrestling with an octopus. There’s a clear reference to the theme of the physical fight central to Bernini’s Fontana del Moro.

Uploaded

November 30th, 2023

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