A quickening of tempo appears in the figures with the 4 river gods produced by Bernini to the fountain in the middle with the Piazza Navona in comparison with Giovanni Bologna's figures on the Fountain of Oceanus within the Boboli Backyard garden. In Tribolo's river god with the Villa Corsini, Bernini had a good closer possible prototype for his sprawling figures, symbolizing the 4 continents of the whole world thrown into attitudes of marvel at beholding the obelisk erected via the munificence of Harmless X. During this occasion the figures are of white marble, contrasting with their rocky environment, as in Montorsoli's rustic fountain from the triton at Genoa. The very allegory of your 4 river gods follows an extended Florentine custom, which evidently commenced in 1536 with the momentary figures erected in the Ponte Santa Trinita in honor of Charles V, and was ongoing by Montorsoli and Francesco Camilliani.
For your triton which he modeled in 1633 for the middle of the fountain erected while in the late sixteenth century at 1 conclusion of the great Piazza Navona, Bernini chose the aged motif of a figure that has a spouting dolphin. The standing central figure dominating lesser creatures of The ocean, existing in numerous Tuscan fountains, is in this article brought to perfection, not merely during the naturalism and impetuous movement of the statue, but will also in its Health, in the torsion of the body as being the central ornament to some freestanding fountain. The skilful utilization of contrapposto, the depth of the facial expression, along with the tossing of your tousled locks reinforce the impression of impassioned movement.
The pathos and agitation of baroque sculpture, like that of Scopas in antiquity, appear to be particularly adapted for the representation with the restless creatures of The ocean. At first glance, it may appear a much cry with the Neptunes of Ammannati and Giovanni Bologna, with their tough modelling, to the freedom and verve of the determine; but Bernini's triumph might have been extremely hard without the lengthy and arduous study from the Florentine sculptors of the previous century in the issues offered by a figure put 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 dropped fountain from the Villa Mattei, constructed about 1629, known only from an etching in Falda, as well as well-known Fontana del Tritone, erected in the Piazza Barberini in 1640. As We have now observed within an earlier chapter, the motif with the triton spouting upward was identified to Florentine sculptors during the Cinquecento, and was even utilized as being the central motif about freestanding fountains.
In his later and a lot more monumental triton fountain, Bernini turned down the plurifacial remedy of his Tuscan prototypes for an easier frontal conception more In line with the colossal proportions of his determine. His usage of travertine as being a medium is especially website content. Darkened via the water, and overgrown with moss until It appears a part of character, this stone dissolves into the encompassing environment more easily compared to white marble normally used at Florence.