Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Galera, Navicella, Barcaccia? Bernini's fountain in Piazza di Spagna revisited

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14601176.2011.556851

1943-2186

Anatole Tchikine,

Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements Some of the material included in this study was originally presented as a paper ‘Military motifs in Italian Renaissance and Baroque fountain design’ at the ‘Cultures of war’ conference, Trinity College Dublin, in March 2008. Even prior to that, Charles Avery had encouraged me to look at Bernini's Barcaccia in the light of Nigrone's drawings. Edward Goldberg read the final draft of this article and made some valuable suggestions. Alessio Assonitis checked my translations from Latin. Brian Sandberg offered some useful advice on sixteenth-century galley warfare. I am also grateful to Peter Cherry, Rosemarie Mulcahy, Edward McParland, Sarah Alyn Stacey, John Beardsley, and Michael Lee, who discussed the subject of this study at different stages of my work. Serena Lucianelli, Linda Lott, Brendan Dempsey, Charles Benson, Karen Choppa, and Alan Kirby helped me to obtain some of the illustrations and permissions to publish these. Finally, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Trustees for Harvard University) provided the most congenial environment for the completion of my research and writing by awarding me a Fellowship in Garden and Landscape Studies (2010–11), with a project on Giovanni Antonio Nigrone. Notes 1. The name ‘Barcaccia’ was attached to Bernini's fountain before the end of the seventeenth century. See Pietro Rossini, Mercurio errante … (Rome: Molo, 1693), pp. 127, 129. The story of a stranded boat must have originated at the same time in conjunction with this odd name. 2. Francesco Milizia, Memorie degli architetti antichi e moderni (Parma: Stamperia Reale, 1781), II, p. 224; Opuscoli (Bologna: Cardinali e Frulli, 1826), p. 466. 3. Howard Hibbard and Irma Jaffe, ‘Bernini's Barcaccia’, The Burlington Magazine, 106, 1964, pp. 159–170. 4. This distich was originally published in Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII), Poemata (Rome: Stamperia Vaticana, 1631), p. 185 (with the title: ‘De fonte pontificio navis effigiem habente’). It was also included in a different edition of this book, which appeared in Rome in the same year (but not in all of the subsequent editions). The distich was linked to the Barcaccia by Agostino Oldoini (1677) and, five years later, by Bernini's biographer Filippo Baldinucci. Alfonso Chacón (Ciacconius) and Agostino Oldoini, Vitae, et res gestae Pontificum Romanorum … (Rome: De Rossi, 1677), IV, p. 508; Filippo Baldinucci, Vita del Cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernini … (Florence: Vangelisti, 1682), p. 14. 5. Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), p. 164. 6. Cf. Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), pp. 165, 166. 7. For this fountain, see Giovanni Zanetti, ‘La Fontana della Galera nei Giardini Vaticani’, L'illustrazione vaticana, V, 1934, pp. 509–510; Cesare D'Onofrio, Le fontane di Roma (Rome: Staderini, 1962), p. 183, note 14. The attribution to Maderno is suggested by the caption below Venturini's engraving (see figure 5). 8. Mariano Vasi, Itinerario istruttivo di Roma antica e moderna (Rome: De Romanis, 1818), II, p. 518. 9. D'Onofrio, who described this fountain as ‘un modellino di una vera galera seicentesca’, attributed it to Giovanni Vasanzio (Jan van Zanten, 1550–1621) due to its naturalistic detailing. This attribution, however, remains controversial, since the galleon's current appearance resulted from late eighteenth-century interventions and does not reflect its original design (as Venturini's engraving clearly indicates). See D'Onofrio (as in note 7), p. 183, note 14. 10. Perhaps for this reason, D'Onofrio suggested that Urban VIII's distich originally referred to the Vatican Fontana della galera and was erroneously associated with the Barcaccia by Baldinucci. Baldinucci, however, was not the first to draw this connection (see note 4). Furthermore, the distich was not included in the earlier editions of Urban VIII's Poemata (1620, 1622, and 1628), suggesting that it appeared after the creation of the Barcaccia (1627–29). See D'Onofrio (as in note 7), pp. 180–183; Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), p. 165, note 23 (for their convincing refutation of D'Onofrio's claim). 11. Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, Manoscritti (hereafter cited as BNN, Ms.), XII G 59 and XII G 60. For Nigrone, see Angelo Borzelli, Giovanni Antonio Nigrone, ‘fontanaro e ingegnero de acqua’ (Naples: Margheri, 1902); Raffaello Mormone, ‘Disegni per fontane di G. Antonio Nigrone’, Il Fulidoro, 1956, pp. 109–16; and Cesare D'Onofrio, Acque e fontane di Roma (Rome: Staderini, 1977), pp. 211–19. 12. Giorgio Vasari, Le opere, edited by Gaetano Milanesi (Florence: Sansoni, 1906), VI, p. 81. Although the bronze group was executed by Ammannati, Vasari attributes this conceit to Tribolo. 13. Michel de Montaigne, Journal de voyage, edited by Fausta Garavini (Paris: Gallimard, 1983), p. 181. The implausible figure given by Montaigne must be a mistake in his text. 14. Vasari (as in note 12), p. 74. 15. Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de’ professori del disegno …, edited by Francesco Ranalli (Florence: SPES, 1974), II, p. 349. 16. For the measurements of Ammannati's group, see The Medici, Michelangelo, & the art of late Renaissance Florence, exhibition catalogue (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 185–187. Although this group is now displayed inside Villa La Petraia, this catalogue entry, oddly enough, makes no reference to its original display on a fountain. 17. Towers and battlements were not always linked to the conceit of water-spouting cannon. For example, the destroyed fountain known as La Castigliana, erected by Giovanni Fontana (1540–1614) opposite the church of S. Pietro in Montorio in Rome, had four crenellated towers that represented the coat-of-arms of Castile. Similarly, two towers of the early seventeenth-century Fontana delle Torri in the Vatican gardens have no embrasures to release hidden jets. 18. ‘Robbe ritrovate in la grotta del ditto giardino … Item uno castello de piombo de fontana … Item quattro cannoni de bronso per la fontana’. Naples, Archivio di Stato, Manoscritti, 135, fols 51v–52r. Don Pedro's inventory is known through a seventeenth-century copy. 19. Paola Maresca, ‘Giovan Battista Marmi e la Villa di Pratolino nel ’600’, Il concerto di statue, edited by Alessandro Vezzosi (Florence: Alinea, 1986), p. 87. 20. Montaigne (as in note 13), p. 491 (this part of Montaigne's diary was written in Italian). 21. John Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, edited by E. S. de Beer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), II, p. 110. 22. BNN, Ms. XII G 59, fols. 68r, 69v, 88r, 189r, 211r, 230r. 23. In another fountain of this type, represented on fol. 189r, the quatrefoil ‘moat’ becomes a fishpond with dolphins, a crab, and an eel. 24. BNN, Ms. XII G 59, fols. 69v, 189r, 211r. The note above the drawing on fol. 69v reads: ‘Quessta fontana a modo de castello [h]a da buttare intorno acqua in alto. Et più sopra a ttutte [sic] le torre gievonno essere le artigliarie in carrette. Et per tutte le saiettere che menano acqua per dar burla a li mirante’. 25. Montaigne referred to the Fountain of the Dragons, dated after 1568. Montaigne (as in note 13), p. 234. 26. Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, edited by Salvatore Battaglia and Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti (Turin: UTET, 1961–2002), VI, pp. 714–715. 27. Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), p. 163; D'Onofrio (as in note 7), p. 176. 28. Michael Eichberg, ‘Die Navicella vor S. Maria in Domnica auf dem Caelius’, Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 30, 1995, pp. 307–314; Rodolfo Lanciani, Storia degli scavi di Roma … (Rome: Quasar, 1989–2002), I, pp. 24, 101. S. Maria in Domnica was the titular church of Leo X, who ordered its restoration in 1513–15. The original ancient boat, in a dilapidated condition, was still under its portico in 1588. Pompeo Ugonio, Historia delle stationi di Roma (Rome: Bonfadino, 1588), p. 120. The fountain was moved to its present position in 1931. 29. David Coffin, The Villa d'Este at Tivoli (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1960), pp. 23–24. 30. Cesare D'Onofrio, La Villa Aldobrandini di Frascati (Rome: Staderini, 1963), plates 77, 114, 115. D'Onofrio attributes this fountain to the sculptor Ippolito Buzzi (1562–1634), who executed other works for the villa. 31. Maria Barbara Guerrieri Borsoi, Villa Rufuna Falconieri: la rinascita di Frascati e la più antica dimora tuscolana (Rome: Gangemi, 2008), pp. 72–73. 32. ‘Nel mezzo dell'istesso Cortile si posa un'altra fontana piccola di marmo in forma di navicella, in cui si fanno molt'ingegnosi giuochi d'acqua, ogn'uno de'quali prende da ciò, che rappresenta, il suo proprio nome; e questi sono, l'Ombrello, la Nebbia, il Bicchiere, la Stella, la Girandola, la Grandine, la Caccia, & altri, che apportano alla vista diletto, e vaghezza non ordinaria’. Domenico Montelatici, Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana … (Rome: Buagni, 1700), pp. 126–127. The Casino del Muro Torto (also known as the Aranciera), which became part of the villa only after the death of Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1633, served as the gardener's lodgings. It underwent extensive rebuilding in the eighteenth century and now houses Museo Carlo Bilotti. 33. Nigrone uses this motif in three other fountains. See BNN, Ms. XII G 59, fols. 58r, 63r, 174r. 34. Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, edited by Marco Ariani and Mino Gabriele (Milan: Adelphi, 1998), I, pp. 276, 290–291. 35. Horst Bredekamp, Vicino Orsini und der heilige Wald von Bomarzo: ein Fürst als Künstler und Anarchist (Worms: Werner, 1985), I, p. 122. 36. Baldinucci (as in note 4), p. 13. 37. D'Onofrio's suggestion that the Barcaccia derived from Giacomo della Porta's Fontana della Terrina (c. 1581, travertine cap 1622) is unconvincing, as it does not explain this fountain's specific form. See D'Onofrio (as in note 7), p. 177. 38. This pattern of water display also appears in a sketch attributed to Bernini's studio, now in Windsor Castle (Royal Collection, inventory number 5626). For this drawing, see Heinrich Brauer and Rudolf Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini (Berlin: Keller, 1931), p. 35, plate 152c; Anthony Blunt and Hereward Lester Cooke, The Roman drawings of the XVII and XVIII centuries in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle (London: Phaidon, 1960), p. 24. 39. Baldinucci (as in note 4), pp. 13–14. 40. Detlef Heikamp, ‘Agostino del Riccio. Del giardino di un Re’, Il giardino storico italiano, edited by Giovanna Ragionieri (Florence: Olschki, 1981), pp. 82, 100 (‘Et invece di tirar palle crudeli di piombo, tirino acqua cristallina … ’; ‘ … invece di mandar fuora fuoco o palla mandino fuora acqua cristallina’). 41. Giovanni Antonio Summonte, Historia della città e regno di Napoli … (Naples: Vivenzio, 1748), p. 292. 42. An unpublished description of this well-documented event is found in Nigrone's manuscript. It is based on the eye-witness account of Giovanni Antonio's father, Tommaso Nigrone. See BNN, Ms. XII G 60, fols. 133r–134r (‘Del incendio di Pozzuolo, e terremoto e Nuovo Monte, et del aprimento della terra, l'anno sucgesso 1538 al sopredetto luoco’). 43. Cf. Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), p. 166: ‘The water spouting from its [the Barcaccia's] prows may show the warlike purpose of this papal ship in its quest for final victory of Truth over Heresy, for Catholic triumph over the alien powers opposing Rome’. 44. Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), pp. 169–170. 45. Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), pp. 169–170, note 64. 46. Pompilio Totti, Ritratto di Roma moderna (Rome: Mascardi, 1638), p. 22. John Evelyn, who visited Rome in 1644–45, noted both the inscription and the three water-spouting bees. 47. Baldinucci (as in note 4), p. 14. 48. Chacón and Oldoini (as in note 4), p. 260. 49. Cf. Stanislao Fraschetti, Il Bernini (Milan: Hoepli, 1900), p. 116 (with reference to 1624). 50. This hydraulic work is mentioned in two commemorative inscriptions recorded by Oldoini. Chacón and Oldoini (as in note 4), p. 518. 51. For these plaques, see Cesare D'Onofrio, Il Tevere. L'Isola tiberina, le inondazioni, i molini, i porti, le rive, i muraglioni, i ponti di Roma (Rome: Romana Società Editrice, 1980), pp. 310–316. 52. Oskar Pollak, ‘La fontana detta la Barcaccia’, Vita d'arte, 4, 1909, pp. 518–520; Die Kunsttätigket unter Urban VIII (Vienna: Filser, 1928–31), I, pp. 12–14. 53. Giovanni Baglione, Le vite … (Rome: Fei, 1642), p. 305; Totti (as in note 46), p. 336; Baldinucci (as in note 4), pp. 13–14; Domenico Bernini, Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino … (Rome: Bernabò, 1713), pp. 58–59. 54. This explains, for example, these scholars’ insistence on the connection between the Barcaccia and Papirio Bartoli's project for St Peter's tomb (1623). This unrealized tomb, formed as a boat, however, had clearly identifiable frontal and rear parts. See Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), p. 164, and also plate 29. 55. Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini: the sculptor of the Roman Baroque (London: Phaidon, 1997), p. 299. Cf. p. 175: ‘One can hardly doubt that Bernini is here alluding to the Ship of the Church sailing the seas under the banner of the Barberini Pope… . [T]he water-spouting, poetically transformed man-o’-war seems to embody a reference to the Barberini Pope's Counter-Reformational prowess’. See also Hibbard and Jaffe (as in note 3), p. 166: ‘The Barcaccia conflates the ancient ship fountain, the Navicella of Peter, and the war vessel of the papal armada into one image … It seems incredible that this typical creation of Gianlorenzo Bernini's has been attributed to someone else’. 56. Eugenio Battisti, ‘A proposito della Barcaccia di Piazza di Spagna’, Bollettino d'arte, 44, 1959, pp. 181–189; D'Onofrio (as in note 7), pp. 178–184.