Out of all the structures we saw by Bernini on our walking tour, I chose the “Fountain of the Rivers” located in the center of Piazza Navona to investigate further. It was commissioned by Pope Innocent X whose crest can be recognized between what I believe to be the Ganges and Danube rivers and the Papal family Pamphilj in 1648. It’s constructed of marble and travertine. The purpose projected by the Pamphilj family was to demonstrate the church’s influence and power about the four existing regions of the world, thus demonstrating the universal nature of the church. Each river is identified by a person who was never a real figure. This person is a personification of one of the then known four continents which is associated with each particular river. The rivers are The Danube (Europe), The Ganges (Asia), The Rio della Plata which is personifies the riches of the Americas with coins and a black man. The most interesting to me is the depiction of the Nile because it is depicted by a man with a covered head because at this time Europeans didn’t know where the Nile came from, so they had no way to personify something they didn’t know anything about.
There are some interesting symbolic factors to this fountain as well that I would never have noticed or recognized without digging deeper. For example, there is a bronze pigeon at the top of the fountain that represents the transcendental peace of the church over the whole world or the world as they knew it. It is not a secret that Bernini and Borromini were not on good terms. There are theories that suggest that the rivers of Rio della Plata and the Nile were placed facing the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone which was by Borromini. The hand of the personification of the Rio della Plata has a hand raised at the church supposedly to shield himself from the collapse of the church suggesting instability and faulty work by Borromini. It is also suggested that the personification of the Nile has his face covered not because they didn’t know where the Nile came from, but because he was refusing to look at the work of Borromini. Which I think is pretty funny ha.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI also chose the fountain of the four rivers to write on. I believe this fountain is a magnificent work of art by Bernini, and the stories behind it are quite interesting. I too felt the story regarding how the statue was seemingly showing distaste for Bernini's rival Borromini's work very funny, however in doing research I found that the church of St. Agnese wasn't erected by Borromini until sometime after the completion of the Fountain of the Four Rivers.
ReplyDelete