The Fountain of Farnese

Carlo and Girolamo Rainaldi, who, in 1612, adapted for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese this furniture of the past to seventeenth - century decorative purposes, could think of no more original design than that of the well - known Italian fountain of their own day. They placed each of the tubs in a large, elegantly curved basin similar to those in the Piazza Navona standing some two feet above the pavement. In the middle of each tub they erected a sumptuous Italian vase, its large, swelling stem, richly carved, up - holding an elaborate shallow bowl, oblong in shape, out of which rises as the fountain's final consummation a highly conventional fleur - de - lis, the emblem of the Farnese family. This is overwrought with fine stone traceries, and sends upward from its centre convolu­tion a single slender stream of water. Additional jets, of no artistic value, rise one on either side in each of the lower basins. This modern work is all in travertine.

The combination of the severely classic lines of the baths with the Gothic carving and mediaeval emblem of the fleur - de - lis is not good. It is disastrous to the design as a composition and makes these fountains archaeological curiosities rather than artistic creations. Still, the Farnese fountains impose by their qualities of size and strength, and once seen can never be forgotten.

The pleasure derived from the sight of a pair of fountains is not merely double the pleasure that is felt at the sight of one. The two objects, though exactly similar, create by their mutual relation an entirely new set of aesthetic emotions. The feeling for balance and composition is aroused, and this particular pleasure is produced in no small degree by these two fountains. Twin fountains are an unusual feature. There are few of them in the world; and in Rome, whose fountains are perhaps still unnumbered, there are but five - the fountains of St. Peter's, the side fountains of the Piazza del Popolo, the two end fountains of the Piazza Navona, Vansantio's fountains in the Villa Borghese, and these of the Piazza Farnese.

Mr. John Evelyn also describes in his journal the custom of his day for the Roman gentry to take their airing in the Piazza Farnese, driving or walking before the palace and about the fountains, whose water gave to all the architectural magnificence that touch of freshness and charm essential to the Roman idea of a pleasure - ground.