A quickening of tempo appears during the figures of your 4 river gods designed by Bernini around the fountain in the center on the Piazza Navona when compared with Giovanni Bologna's figures within the Fountain of Oceanus while in the Boboli Back garden. In Tribolo's river god at the Villa Corsini, Bernini had a good nearer doable prototype for his sprawling figures, representing the four continents of the world thrown into attitudes of marvel at beholding the obelisk erected from the munificence of Harmless X. During this instance the figures are of white marble, contrasting with their rocky placing, as in Montorsoli's rustic fountain with the triton at Genoa. The pretty allegory with the 4 river gods follows an extended Florentine tradition, which seemingly commenced in 1536 With all the short-term figures erected in the Ponte Santa Trinita in honor of Charles V, and was ongoing by Montorsoli and Francesco Camilliani.
For that triton which he modeled in 1633 for the center of a fountain erected during the late sixteenth century at a person conclusion of The good Piazza Navona, Bernini selected the previous motif of the figure having a spouting dolphin. The standing central determine dominating lesser creatures of the sea, existing in countless Tuscan fountains, is right here introduced to perfection, not merely within the naturalism and impetuous movement website with the statue, but also in its Conditioning, from the torsion of the body as being the central ornament to some freestanding fountain. The skilful usage of contrapposto, the depth on the facial expression, and also the tossing with the tousled locks reinforce the impression of impassioned movement.
The pathos and agitation of baroque sculpture, like that of Scopas in antiquity, appear to be specifically tailored into the representation on the restless creatures of The ocean. Initially glance, it could feel a far cry through the Neptunes of Ammannati and Giovanni Bologna, with their tricky modelling, to the liberty and verve of the figure; but Bernini's triumph would have been unattainable without the very long and arduous investigate of the Florentine sculptors in the preceding century in the issues offered by a figure placed at the center of the freestanding fountain.
Two of Bernini's isolated fountains are decorated with central figures of tritons spouting upward by way of a conch shell  the missing fountain of the Villa Mattei, produced about 1629, known only from an etching in Falda, plus the well known Fontana del Tritone, erected from the Piazza Barberini in 1640. As we have observed in an earlier chapter, the motif in the triton spouting upward was recognized to Florentine sculptors in the Cinquecento, and was even used since the central motif over freestanding fountains.
In his later on plus much more monumental triton fountain, Bernini rejected the plurifacial procedure of his Tuscan prototypes for a less complicated frontal conception far more In step with the colossal proportions of his figure. His use of travertine to be a medium is particularly happy. Darkened via the h2o, and overgrown with moss till It appears a Component of nature, this stone dissolves in to the encompassing atmosphere additional quickly when compared to the white marble frequently utilised at Florence.