CLEMENS · XII · PONT · MAX AQVAM · VERGINEM · COPIA · ET · SALVBRITATE COMMENDATAM · CVLTV · MAGNIFICO · ORNAVIT ANNO · DOMINO · MDCCXXXV · PONTIF: VI _Pope Clement XII decked out with magnificent ornament the aqueduct of the Maiden, which is recommended for its plenteous flow and for the healthful qualities of its water. In the year of the Lord 1735, and of Clement’s pontificate the sixth._ On either side of this tribune the palace wall breaks into niches containing statues, one of Abundance, the other of Health; and separated from each other by tall columns are panels depicting in high relief the discovery of the water and the construction of the aqueduct. Beyond these sculptures the windows and balconies of the palace frankly make their appearance. Nothing could be more incongruous and artificial. The design is one which demands a background as an integral part of the composition, but this background has absolutely no connection with the fountain, except the purely physical connection of juxtaposition. Neptune should be appearing from some sea cave, worn in straight, steep cliffs like the cliffs at Sorrento. The architect who could so skilfully mass these rocky ledges and dispose these streams and cascades could have designed quite as well stone palisades and grottos; but the fountain belongs to an age which played “Macbeth” in periwig and ruffles, and it remains a magnificent example of the taste of that period. PIAZZA DEL POPOLO [Illustration] PIAZZA DEL POPOLO The fountains in the Piazza del Popolo should not be considered as individual creations; they must be regarded as parts of an architectural composition which includes the piazza as a whole--its shape, dimensions, and location, and the buildings which surround it. This composition is the work of the distinguished Roman architect Giuseppe Valadier, whose life lay within the last thirty-eight years of the eighteenth century and the first three decades of the nineteenth. His bust stands in the place of honor on the Pincian; that is, it stands at the end of and facing the long, broad drive called the Passeggiata, which begins on the terrace before the Villa Medici and runs northward along the western crest of the Pincian Hill. Valadier had been papal architect under Pius VI and Pius VII, and he had laid out for Napoleon the public gardens of the Pincian. Up to that time most of that land had belonged to the Augustinian monks whose convent stands below the hill, close to the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. It has been their vineyard, and the story goes that it was while he was walking in this vineyard that Valadier got his first conception of what he might make out of the Piazza del Popolo. [Illustration]