
Fountain of Four Rivers by Bernini

by Melany Sarafis
Title
Fountain of Four Rivers by Bernini
Artist
Melany Sarafis
Medium
Photograph
Description
Started in 1648 by Gianlorenzo Bernini, made from marble and travertine with Egyptian-style obelisk. Located in piazza Navonna in Rome. Commissioned by Pope Innocent X Pamphili following the traditional competition for the work. Interestingly, Bernini didn't even enter the competition, yet "somehow" the Pope saw his plans and gave the commission to him after someone else won the competition. (Yes, the art world in the Renaissance and Baroque eras was a dog-eat-dog world)
The fountain features an Egyptian-style obelisk - an ancitent Roman imitation comissioned by the emperor Domitian in the first century CE for the circus that he built in Rome at this location. The rocky landscape features four figures, as large as Michelangelo's David, that symbolize what at the time were considered to be the four main rivers of the world: The Danube, Nile, Rio della Plata and the Ganges.
The theme of the fountain was consistent with the Counter-Reformation which set out to convert all the peoples of the wold to Catholicism.
The church in the background, Sant'Agnes in Agone, was designed by the Italian Baroque architect Francesco Borromini.
Uploaded
August 28th, 2013
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