TREVI
FOUNTAIN IN ROME |
"THE
HISTORY AND THE MUSEUM"
FACADE
with CORINTHIAN COLUMS |
History
of this fountain began in 19 B.C. when it was inaugurated the Aqua
Virgo acqueduct projected by Marco Agrippa, Augusto's lieutenant.
Here there was the end of that aqueduct necessary for thermal baths
close to the Pantheon. Three basins collected the water coming from
three different pipes exactly as it happens nowadays. The architectural
history of this place started again during the Renaissance when
Pope Nicoḷ V wanted and approved a new project signed by Leon Battista
Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino who thought to realize a facade
with some Vatican coats of arms and a rectangular basin collecting
the water. Also Gian Lorenzo Bernini put hands on the project creating
a basament and orientating the fountain in the present position
but then the works stopped. Finalliy Pope Clement XII Corsini wrote
the end of this history proclaiming a competition won by architect
Nicola Salvi who had been helped in the realization by his friend
and famous painter Luigi Vanvitelli. Salvi's project was preferred
for its great monumental aspect that probably makes this fountain
one of the most famous in the world. The central part remember a
temple or a triumphal arch with some bas-relief representing the
virgen indicating the original spring as legend recounts between
Corinthian colums. The upper part report an inscription commemorating
the work realized in obedience to Clemente XII's wishes enclosed
by four allegorical estatues. In the middle a great Nettuno leads
a shell shaped coach towed by two tritons of opposite mood to symbolize
two different aspect of the ocean. The name of the fountain seems
to derive from the name of the area found in an old document (regio
trivii). |
