Fountains of Papal RomeMacVeagh, Fanny Davenport Rogers
History
Fountains of Papal Rome
MacVeagh, Fanny Davenport Rogers
Fountains -- Italy -- Rome
The name of Trevi is supposed by some writers to be derived from these
three streams of water--three ways, Trevie; but there is more reason
to believe that the fountain took its name from the mediæval name of
that quarter of the city--Regione Trevi, from trevium, because of
three roads which converge near the present Piazza of Trevi. Sixtus IV
had constructed near the fountain a large public washing-trough, and
the whole composition was extremely simple and practical. The Rome of
Sixtus V and Paul V became too sumptuous for the old fountain, and as
early as 1625 plans were made for its reconstruction. The Barberini
Pope, Urban VIII, had his own ideas of magnificence; he proposed to
change the fountain from its old site to its present position against
the southern façade of the great Poli Palace; and Bernini made for him
some beautiful sketches for the new masterpiece. Urban VIII stripped
the portico of the Pantheon of its bronze and also carried off a part
of the base of the tomb of Cecilia Metella, proposing to construct
his fountain out of these materials. The Roman people, whose love for
their own antiquities was constantly growing, showed such indignation
when the Pope’s project became known that Urban was actually obliged
to abandon his scheme, and it was not until eleven pontificates after
his time that the work on the new fountain was really begun. Then it
was intrusted to the architect Niccolo Salvi by Clement XII (Corsini,
1730–1740), and after the death of this pontiff and his successor,
Benedict XIV, and eleven years after the death of Salvi himself, the
fountain was at last finished. This was in 1762, under Clement XIII
(Rezzonico, 1758–1769). Niccolo Salvi had succumbed prematurely to the
hardships of his task. The construction of the fountain necessitated
spending much time in the subterranean chambers of the Virgo Aqueduct,
and this had proved fatal to Salvi’s health. The tomb of Cecilia
Metella was never again attacked, and there is no bronze in the present
fountain; in other respects the great scheme of Urban VIII was revived.
The fountain was placed against the Poli Palace, and Salvi used for the
sculptural part of the fountain Bernini’s beautiful designs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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