Fontana del Tritone or Triton Fountain is one of the most famous fountains in Rome. It was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini). He patronized the arts and actively financed the creation of a number of outstanding buildings in Rome.
In 1627, he commissioned the construction of the Barberini Palace and the piazza adjacent to it. In particular, it was planned to build a fountain that would supply the citizens with water from the aqueduct Aqua Felice restored by the Pope and, at the same time, serve as a decoration of the palace square.
As soon as the main stages of construction of the palace were completed, the sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini began to design his creation. It was the first city fountain by the great master.
Bernini’s main idea was a scene from Ovid’s poem “Metamorphoses”, where Poseidon’s son Triton blows streams of water out of his shell. The genius of the master manifested itself in a fundamentally new approach, which consisted in rejecting the traditional classical bowls filled with water.
For this purpose, he placed the figure of Triton between the huge flaps of the opened shell. The traditional pedestal was also rejected, and the fountain rested on a pedestal of four dolphins with their tails raised.
This bold original idea was favorably received by the pontiff, and the construction of the fountain began. The material chosen for it was travertine – a pliable rock with calcium carbonate in the base, actively used for buildings in ancient Rome. The work started at the end of 1642. In 1643 the fountain appeared before the citizens in all its splendor.
Judging by the few photographs and sketches of the 19th century, in those days the Triton Fountain looked much more majestic against the background of not such tall buildings as it is surrounded by today. The water flows from the basin were more powerful and made so much noise that the fountain was often called “Roaring Triton”.
The sculptural composition of the fountain is quite complex. Its plot recalls one of the mythical exploits of Triton, the son of the nereid Amphitrite and the god Poseidon (Neptune). During the flood at Mount Parnassus, he, on Poseidon’s orders, trumpeted into a shell, forcing the waves to part, thus saving people from death.
The dynamism of the fountain perfectly harmonizes with the water flows. In the center of the composition is Triton himself, an athletic-looking half-man with a bifurcated fish tail. With strong hands he holds a shell to his mouth, into which he trumpets, blowing out, however, not sounds, but jets of water.
He sits on the open flaps of another, giant shell. Four dolphins carry it on their tails over the sea waves. Between the dolphins Bernini placed the coat of arms of the Barberini family and the tiara of the Pope.
The coat of arms contains an image of bees, whose honey once helped the heir of the family to recover from illness. The dolphins’ mouths are also filled with jets of water, filling the bowl of the fountain, which repeats the shape of a honeycomb.
Since its construction, the Triton Fountain has not only adorned the square in front of the Pope’s palace and served as a source of water but has also been the starting point of a very specific ceremony. According to an established rule, every day, until the 18th century, disfigured unidentified corpses found in the streets of the city were brought here.
Here, at the fountain, they were transferred into one cart, and the herald loudly called citizens to identify the bodies. After that the wagon started its way through the busiest places, so that people who saw it could recognize loved ones and acquaintances by the signs on the bodies lying in it.
The funeral carriage is a thing of the past. For the fourth century, the Triton Fountain has adorned a square in Rome. Art historians believe that Triton’s ability to calm the raging waters is symbolic for the Italian capital, where the overflow of the Tiber has repeatedly led to large-scale floods. The god of the sea could, according to the author’s idea, play the role of the city’s protector.
