Fountain of Moses (Rome)
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The Moses Fountain (Italian Fontana dell'Acqua Felice or Fontana del Mosè ) is a Baroque fountain in Rome on the Piazza San Bernardo on the Quirinal .
The fountain was cleaned of exhaust gases in 2009-2010 and restored.
Acqua Felice
A few days after his election as Pope, Sixtus V commissioned the restoration of the ancient Aqua Alexandrina . For this purpose, their sources were reactivated on Via Praenestina. However, a new route was chosen that led to Porta Tiburtina . Acqua Felice carried 21,000 cubic meters of water to Rome every day. For the first time since ancient times, higher-lying parts of the city could be supplied again. The aqueduct was named Acqua Felice after Sixtus's real name, Felice Peretti .
history
Sixtus wanted a representative well as the end point of the water pipe. He gave the commission to his house architect Domenico Fontana in 1585 , but also involved the artists Flaminio Vacca , Giacomo della Porta , Prospero da Brescia and Leonardo Sormani . When the fountain was inaugurated on June 15, 1587, the statue of Moses was still missing , which was only completed later by Sormani.
The Moses fountain was the model for the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola and the Trevi fountain .
architecture
The motif of an ancient triumphal arch was chosen as the motif for the fountain . The fountain was made with Roman travertine from Tivoli , most of which came from the nearby Diocletian's baths . In the left arch a relief shows how Aaron leads the people of Israel to the water that rises in the desert. The relief in the right arch shows Gideon with his soldiers. In the center is a four-meter monumental statue of Moses. The four lions in front of the pillars that divide the arches are from the Pantheon . A large fountain basin extends in front of this facade.
Legends
The statue of Moses was widely criticized because it clearly fell apart , especially artistically, in comparison with the Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli by Michelangelo . It is said that the sculptor of the statue died out of shame because of the criticism or even committed suicide.
See also
literature
- Heinz-Joachim Fischer : Rome. Two and a half millennia of history, art and culture of the Eternal City , DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-5607-2 , pp. 236–237
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 15.7 " N , 12 ° 29 ′ 39.9" E