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Fontana dell'Acqua Felice

Roman monumental fountain

Summary

Roman monumental fountain

Field	Value
name	Fontana dell'Acqua Felice
location	Rome, Italy
place_type	Fountain
image_place	image:Fontana dell'Acqua Felice (Rome).jpg
image_caption	Fontana dell'Acqua Felice
designer	Domenico Fontana
imagesize	270
coordinates
mapframe	yes
mapframe-zoom	12
mapframe-wikidata	yes
mapframe-marker	monument

| mapframe-zoom = 12 | mapframe-wikidata = yes | mapframe-marker = monument The Fontana dell'Acqua Felice, also called the Fountain of Moses, is a monumental fountain located in the Quirinale District of Rome, Italy. It marked the terminus of the Acqua Felice aqueduct restored by Pope Sixtus V. It was designed by Domenico Fontana and built in 1585–1588. It is located at the intersection of Largo Santa Susanna and Via Venti Settembre; across and diagonal from the Largo, is the church of Santa Susanna, while across Via Venti Settembre is the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria.

History

At the beginning the reign of Pope Sixtus V (born Felice Peretti) in 1585, only one of the ancient Roman aqueducts which brought water to the city, the Aqua Vergine, was still being maintained and working. Everyone in Rome who wanted clean drinking water had to go to the single fountain near the site of today's Trevi Fountain. Pope Sixtus took on the responsibility of restoring other aqueducts, including the Acqua Alessandrina, which he renamed Acqua Felice after himself. The new fountain that marked the terminus of the restored aqueduct was the first new monumental wall fountain in Rome since antiquity.

The initial effort to build the aqueduct, by architect Matteo Bartolini, was a failure: Bartolini miscalculated the incline of the channel, so the flow of water was much less than needed reach the Quirinal Hill, the intended site of its terminal fountain. Giovanni Fontana took over the building of the aqueduct, which was completed by June 1587. A fountain was constructed by architect engineer Domenico Fontana in the form of an ancient Roman triumphal arch. It featured, as ancient Roman fountains did, an inscription honoring its builder, Pope Sixtus, beneath angels holding the papal coat of arms.

p=73}} Alternatively, given the Roman attire of the soldiers, it may reflect the founding of the ancient Roman Acqua Alessandrina by emperor [[Septimius Severus]]; the imagery would lead to having the feat of the aqueduct being compared to the achievements of ancient Rome, or as an example of the restoration of the former glory of the city. Water flows from the statues into basins, where four lions, originally Ancient Egyptian sculptures, but now copies, once were part of a monumental fountain dedicated to Marcus Agrippa in front of the Roman Pantheon, are spouting water. The columns flanking the arches are also said to have derived from that structure.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=o4QNAAAAQAAJ Il Panteon e le Terme d'Agrippa] in Nuova Antologia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, article by R Lanciani, Rome (1882); page 635.</ref>

The statue of Moses was criticized at the time for its large size, not in proportion with the other statuary, but the fountain achieved its political purpose; it was a statement of how the Catholic Church, unlike the Protestant Reformation, was serving the needs of the people of Rome. It also achieved its social purpose of reviving the Quirinal neighborhood; what had been a rustic area of villas was turned into a thriving urban neighborhood by the arrival of a good drinking water supply.

References

Bibliography

References

"Print | British Museum".
Marilyn Symmes with Maria Ann Conelli, Fountains as Refreshment" in Fountains, Splash and Spectacle, Water and Design from the Renaissance to the Present. pg. 36.
''Felice'' in Italian translates to ''happy'' or ''contented''.
Marilyn Symmes, pg. 35
K.W. Rinne, ''The Waters of Rome'' 2010, pg. 126
''So Gideon brought the people down to the water, and the LORD said to him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel to drink."''
[https://books.google.com/books?id=UymyY1Ny9DUC Rome et ses environs], Volume 1, by Abbe Andre Manazzale, Chez Cajetan Cambiagi, Florence (1793); page 81.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=o4QNAAAAQAAJ Il Panteon e le Terme d'Agrippa] in Nuova Antologia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, article by R Lanciani, Rome (1882); page 635.
Marilyn Symmes, pg. 36

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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