Name: Fontana di Nettuno del Piazza del Popolo
Date: 1822-1823
Artist: Giovanni Ceccarini
Location: Piazza dell Popolo, Rome, Italy
Approximate Dimensions: unknown
Medium: stone
Sources of info: http://web.tiscali.it/romaonlineguide/Pages/eng/rmoderna/sMM1y3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_del_Popolo
Picture taken by: J.P.Lon, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fontana_del_Nettuno.jpg
Significance of the work:
For centuries Piazza del Popolo had a public fountain with the Egyptian obelisk of Ramses II, which gave the square a more regal, less domestic air. Giuseppe Valadier, favorite architect of Pope Leo XII during Napoleon's occupation of Rome (1808-1814), reshaped the square and enlarged it into a large oval, surrounding the central obelisk with four neoclassical lion fountains. We can observe the French influence in the ovular shape of this Piazza. Porta Flaminio became Porta del Popolo (The Port of the People) in 1562 and in the 1820’s the aqueduct carrying the Acqua Vergine Nuovo was completed. Sculptor Giovanni Ceccarini’s fountains cover the end of the aqueduct with a typically baroque theme in an unmistakably neoclassical style. One such fountain is the Fountain of Neptune on the western side of the Piazza.
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