The Fountain of the Four Rivers (Blog Week 12)

Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers
in the Piazza Navona
Photo courtesy of: Yortw
 on Flickr Creative Commons 

My father has been known to say, "If it's a Baroque sculpture in Rome, it's a Bernini." For better or worse my father is rarely wrong. One of the best known and most commonly photographed of his works is located in Piazza Navona and happens to be his favorite, The Fountain of the Four Rivers. Pope Innocent X commissioned the work for the piazza outside his family palazzo and Sant' Agnese in Agone. The top of the fountain features an Egyptian obelisk that had sat gathering dust for years after being plucked out of Egypt as part of a Roman artifact collection project. The inclusion of this obelisk as well as the cross perched atop it are both references to Christianity superseding the Pagan religions.

Detail of the Fountain of the Four Rivers
Photo courtesy of: MAMJDOH
on Flickr Creative Commons

The four river depicted in the fountain are the Nile, Danube, Ganges, and Platte - representing the four continents (Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas) that have been influenced by the Church. Each of the four sides of the fountain represent one of the four rivers in the form of an allegorical figure with symbols associated with each river.

To my eye, a huge part of the aesthetic success of the work can be attributed to the way Bernini treats the marble. Rather than smoothing everything to perfection he leaves much of his surface rough and rugged making the allegorical rivers appear to be perched into their setting. The viewer can easily envision the rivers breathing and moving giving them a truly organic feel.