A Monumental Renaissance Water Basin
ArtHistorical Ltd
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A Monumental Renaissance Water Basin
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A Monumental Renaissance Water Basin We are delighted to present this monumental carved marble water basin attributed to Giacomo della Porta, the most important architect working in Rome during the last quarter of the 16th century. Della Porta completed many of the architectural works begun by Michelangelo and Jacopo Vignola earlier in the century, such as the church of Il Gesù, the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Palazzo Farnese. The present water basin is an impressive example of late Renaissance design executed on a grand scale from the second half of the sixteenth century. During this period in Rome, Giacomo della Porta and other talented architects were employed by successive popes in the restoration of the city’s ancient aqueducts, enabling Rome’s newly-built piazzas, palazzos and villas to be adorned with flourishing new fountains and water basins, many of which came from Giacomo della Porta’s large and active workshop. This marble vessel, therefore, represents a rare opportunity to acquire an exceptional object attributed to Rome’s most prolific fountaineer, making it worthy of the finest Renaissance villa or palazzo. We are grateful to Dr Charles Avery, who has provided the academic expertise for this catalogue. The object is available for viewing by prior appointment in central London.
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Rome, third quarter 16th century Attributed to Giacomo della Porta (1532-1602) A Monumental Water Basin White marble Dimensions: length 203 cm. / 80 in., width 74 cm. / 29 in., height: 60 cm. / 23 ½ in.
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Rome, early 1960s
RELATED LITERATURE:
Arduino Colasanti, Le Fontane d’Italia, Milan, 1926, pls. 218, 269-70 Cesare d’Onofrio, Acque e Fontane di Roma, Rome, 1977, pp. 58-179, pls. 45, 49, 170, 171, 173 David Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton, NJ, 1979/1988, pp. 158-69, pls. 103, 110, 127 Cesare d’Onofrio, Le Fontane di Roma, Rome, 1986, pp. 114-18, pls. 83-84, 86 Alessandra Anselmi, “Porta, Giacomo della”, in J. Turner [ed.], The Dictionary of Art, London, 1996, vol. 25, pp. 258-61 Sophie Bajard and Raffaello Bencini, Palais et jardins de Rome, Paris, 1996, pp. 86-93 Katherine Wentworth Rinne, The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains and the Birth of the Baroque City, New Haven and London, 2010, pp. 83-108
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Introduction As a work of architectural-sculpture of the highest quality in conception and execution, this carved marble water basin bears all the hallmarks of Rome during the Mannerist period. The incorporation of sculptural elements into its grand architectural structure – namely, the pair of classical three-headed herms surmounting the pedestals on each side and the elaborate flowering-bud motif carved along the rim – epitomises the creative spirit of Mannerism in the mid-sixteenth century, as opposed to the more austere classicism of the fifteenth century. During the middle part of the sixteenth century in Rome, Michelangelo and his followers were focussed on the construction of St Peter’s Basilica (begun by Bramante earlier in the century) and the new palaces at the Capitoline, as well as increasingly being called upon by the civic and papal authorities for the creation of piazzas adorned with fountains and water basins, to replace the muddy ramshackle squares of the early sixteenth century (fig. 1). Central to these fountain projects was the restoration of Rome’s water supply, provided by its ancient aqueducts.
Fig. 1: Marten van Heemskerck, View of the Pantheon, ink drawing, circa 1503. Berlin, Staatlische Museums. © Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders
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Despite undergoing several phases of repair in the fifteenth century, particularly under Nicholas V (1447-55) and Sixtus IV (1471-84), the city’s aqueducts only began to be comprehensively surveyed and restored in the second half of the sixteenth century. The full restoration of two of its most important ancient aqueducts – the Acqua Vergine in the 1560s under Pius V (1566-72) and the Acqua Felice in the 1580s under the great urbaniser pope, Sixtus V (1585-90) – were central to Rome’s urban development plans in the late Renaissance.1 It is from this period of renovatio Romae, when Rome’s architects – most notably among them, Giacomo della Porta – were engaged in the construction of fountains fed by newly-repaired and flourishing aqueducts, that the present water basin is likely to originate. This ornamental marble receptacle cannot have served as a fountain-basin, which it looks like at first sight, for its rim does not project enough to cast any overflowing water clear of the carvings below. On the contrary, the relatively narrow rim would have enabled a horse to lean forward easily over it in order to slake its thirst and the roughly-hewn back of the basin clearly indicates that, for much of its life, it was placed against a wall and only approached from the front. The elegance of this vessel that served the humble – but vital – role of a horse-trough indicates the wealth, social standing and sophistication of whoever commissioned it. Indeed, it finds parallels in the work of no less distinguished a figure than Bartolomeo Ammanati (1511-1592), an artist favoured by Michelangelo.
1. For further reading on the construction of these aqueducts, see Rinne, op. cit., pp. 38-55 and pp. 122-34. 8
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Late Renaissance fountain design By the mid-sixteenth century, Mannerist architects were increasingly incorporating more elaborate sculptural elements into their fountain designs. For grand public fountains, large statues or narrative groupings could be displayed within or atop the basin, such as Fra Giovanni Angelo Montosorli’s Neptune fountain in Messina (1554-57) and Bartolomeo Ammanati’s Neptune fountain in Piazza della Signoria, Florence (1560-74). For smaller fountains or basins intended for the palazzos and villas of wealthy private patrons, architects could design smaller-sized vessels with more ornate carvings on the object itself. In, for example, Ammanati’s famous counter-sunken Nymphaeum in the Villa Giulia (fig. 2),2 begun in 1551, one may note especially a connection between the triple-headed herms that function as feet (and whose heads decorate the rim) in the present basin, and some close ‘cousins’: four life-size female herms that act as caryatids around the exedra below ground level and support the balustrade walkway above.3 Ammanati was occupied in carving these from May 1552 for 34 months and their well-rounded classical faces provide prototypes for the delightful and charming, though much smaller, androgynous faces on the present water basin.
Fig. 2: Bartolomeo Ammanati, Nymphaeum. Villa Giulia, Rome, circa 1551-53. © Sergio d’Afflitto / CC-BY-SA-4.0
2. See D’Onofrio, 1977, op. cit., pl. 45. 3. See Colasanti, op. cit., pl. 117; D’Onofrio, 1977, pl. 49. 9
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In the same Nymphaeum, the great marble receptacles for the waters poured by two monumental recumbent river-gods in the flanking niches along the walkway also have similarly curvaceous profiles, though they are rectangular in plan.4 They are supported at their front corners by twin harpies (fig. 3) with extended wings and many breasts - like the classical statue of the Earth-Mother goddess, Diana of Ephesus – a favourite motif at the time on account of its bizarre and super-sensuous appearance. Each harpy rises organically from a single lion’s paw, which is addorsed against a voluted architectural foot, rather like those that are extruded from the mouldings running round the bottom of the present basin. Round-ended receptacles were preferred by Vignola for a similar pair of river-gods in niches that flank the entrance to a water-staircase in the (demolished) gardens of the Borromeo family of Milan: on the Via Flaminia outside the Porta del Popolo of Rome, these are recorded a century later in one of the excellent topographical engravings by Falda, in his series of Fontane di Roma.5 Falda shows the abundant water pouring so evenly over the rounded rims that the shape of the basin below is hidden, but their general round-ended design is clearly delineated.
Fig. 3: Water basin below recumbent River God (Tiber) from Nymphaeum, Villa Guilia. Š Mongolo1984 / CC-BY-SA-4.0
4. See Colasanti, pl. 116. 5. See Colasanti, pl. 118. 11
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Giacomo della Porta as fountaineer By the end of the sixteenth century, Giacomo della Porta was regarded as the “first and principal architect of Rome”. Della Porta is most remembered for completing several works initiated by Michelangelo and Jacopo Vignola, including the completion of the façade and steps of the Palazzo Senatorio at the Capitoline, the construction of Il Gesù and the Palazzo Farnese after Vignola’s death in 1573, along with the ongoing building work at St Peter’s, including the completion of its dome, designed by Michelangelo. Giacomo is thus regarded as a highly practical architect, whose style, as Anselmi describes, was influenced both by Michelangelo’s Mannerism and Vignola’s classicism. What concerns us here, however, is the fact that, among his many prestigious architectural undertakings, Giacomo also had an important role in the restoration of Rome’s water supply and was an imaginative ‘fountaineer’. Born in Porlezza near Como, Lombardy, he arrived in Rome in 1559, identifying himself as a sculptor and comprovendi (dealer in excavated objects). Apprenticed to the architect Guidetto Guidetti in 1562, his life-long association with fountains and water projects began early, when in 1563 he was called upon by Pius IV to supervise the restoration of the Trevi fountain. For the Trevi project, della Porta added a separate water fountain to accommodate horses (see fig. 4),6 which indicates that, from early on in his career, he was active in making objects similar to the present water basin.
Fig. 4: View of the church of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio à Trevi, including the Trevi Fountain, c. 1668. From Giovanni Battista Falda, Il Nuovo Teatro Delle Fabriche, Et Edificii, In Prospettiva Di Roma Moderna. Published by G.G. de Rossi, Rome, 1665. Vol. 2, pl. 25
6. Rinne, p. 85. 12
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In 1568 Giacomo was appointed architectural advisor to complete the restoration of the Acqua Vergine. Only two years later, on 30th August 1570, water was pouring once again into the Trevi Fountain, the terminus of the acqueduct, to great public rejoicing.7 As part of Pius V’s restoration plans for the Acqua Vergine and his goal of distributing its water more widely to improve Rome’s infrastructure and public (and moral) health, Giacomo was soon tasked with designing fountains for several piazzas. For the next fifteen years, Giacomo and his workshop were busily engaged in the design and carving of fountains for the new aqueducts and their channels, including those in Piazza Navona (from 1574), Piazza Colonna (from 1575), Piazza della Rotonda (begun in 1575) and Piazza San Marco (from 1588). During this time, the della Porta workshop was also involved in the execution of basins, chalices and ornaments designed without regard to specific sites, suggesting a large operation which supplied vessels to private patrons, as well as for public projects.8 It is the relationships of form and motif in several of these fountains by Giacomo della Porta, together with the fact that his large workshop was a prolific supplier of water basins during this period in Rome, that permit the attribution of the present vessel to this important architect-sculptor.
7. Rinne, p. 55. 8. Rinne, p. 87. 14
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Related fountains by Giacomo della Porta This brings us to the related fountains by Giacomo della Porta, from whose thriving workshop this water basin probably originates. Qualified as the first fountain of modern Rome is one that he designed in 1572 for the centre of the busy Piazza del Popolo, the huge open space inside the all-important gate into the city from the north, that is to say from the rest of Europe, for popes and pilgrims alike. Its appearance in 1665 is known from another of Falda’s engravings (fig. 5), though the fountain was removed in the early 19th century to make way for a far bigger one and was finally erected in Piazza Nicosia in 1950.9 Though the sides are plain, their profile, with indented architectural mouldings at ground-level and a bulbous central zone above, is similar. The same may be said of a fountain (fig. 6), qualified by D’Onofrio as the most beautiful in Rome, that Giacomo della Porta created only two years later for Piazza Colonna, to surround the pedestal of the Column of Marcus Aurelius, with its spiralling narrative of Roman conquests.10 Its basin, however, is articulated by occasional herms with lion’s heads, running up from the ground through the various mouldings and projecting only slightly, which provide the inspiration for the herms on the present basin.11
Fig. 5: Fountain in the Piazza del Popolo, designed by Giacomo della Porta, 1572. From Giovanni Battista Falda, Le Fontane di Roma. Published by G.G. de Rossi, Rome, 1675. Vol. 1, pl. 14 9. See D’Onofrio 1977, pp. 58-70, pls. 45-46; 1986, pp. 86-90, pls. 55-56. 10. See Colasanti, 1926, pl. 79. 11. See D’Onofrio 1977, pp. 174-79, pls. 170, 171, 173; 1986, pp. 114-18, pls. 83-84, 86. 15
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For the Pantheon fountain in the Piazza della Rotonda (altered dramatically in 1711), Giacomo designed a square basin with half-circles bulging out from each of the sides, which are reminiscent of the rounded sides of the present basin. Similarly, in the Pantheon basin there are several thin strips of moulding below the rim and along the base, with a plainer, less ornamented middle section, as in this vessel.
Fig. 6: Fountain in the Piazza Colonna, designed by Giacomo della Porta, 1575-77. From Giovanni Battista Falda, Le Fontane di Roma. Published by G.G. de Rossi, Rome, 1675. Vol. 1, pl. 24
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Function of the water basin David Coffin’s magisterial and comprehensive book of 1979 about The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome provides some useful indications of how the receptacles of some fountains actually served as horse-troughs. These include a sketch of a wall-fountain built on an outside corner of the Villa Giulia around 1552, which shows a horse being led by a groom towards its elegant basin. The inscription states that the fountain was dedicated by Pope Julius III for the use of the public (Publicae commoditati). Concepts of hygiene which appear rudimentary today, such as the fact that animals and humans should not share the same water sources, evidently did not exist at the time. A fresco painted on a vault in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (fig. 7) shows right beside the Aqua Felice fountain of 1586, presided over by Moses, a curved basin fed by a lion’s mask behind it, set into the wall of Vigna Panzani: two horses without a harness are being unceremoniously watered there by a couple of grooms.
Fig. 7: Fountain of Aqua Felice and Vigna Panzani, Rome, designed by Domenico Fontana, c.1585-88. From a fresco in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano
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Additionally, a fountain adapted specifically as a horse-trough by the addition of a new outer retaining wall is to be seen at the huge hunting lodge near the River Tiber called La Magliana, which was built during the High Renaissance, but then continually improved by a succession of wealthy owners, among them in 1562 Cardinal Carlo Borromeo of Milan: Coffin writes of it, “It is probably at this time that an elegant outer basin inscribed with the arms and name of Pope Pius IV was added to the liliform, three-tiered fountain in the centre of the court of the hunting lodge�. This was in order to accommodate a larger number of horses at any one time than had previously been possible. It has vertical, plain sides with minimal shallow architectural mouldings, a narrow rim and only a commemorative inscription and coats of arms on the curved corners by way of ornament. These parallels serve to support the usage of the present rare and splendid receptacle, while the analogies with the magnificent fountains in Rome by Giacomo della Porta suggest that it is likely to have been designed by him and executed in his workshop by a team of skilful stone-carvers. Charles Avery, Ph. D
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ArtHistorical Ltd Catalogue by Jamm Design Photography by Barney Hindle ArtHistorical Ltd London W1, UK +44 (0)207 328 7767 +44 (0)7768 395 500 info@arthistorical.com www.arthistorical.com
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