Marble
University of Notre Dame
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Triton Fountain: Overall front view

Date

Circa 1910

Creator

G. Massiot & cie

Location

Architecture Library, Hesburgh Libraries

His last major commission for Urban VIII was for a fountain outside the family palace at Piazza Barberini. With the Triton Fountain, completed in 1642-1643, Bernini abandoned the staid, architectural format of earlier fountains to create a spectacle. Four dolphins, tails entwined around the papal coats of arms and supporting a giant bivalve, arise from a pool of water. The sea god Triton, seated in the middle of this great shell, blasts a stream of water heavenward from a massive conch shell. The base, basin and figure are integrated into an organic, poetic whole, which Bernini intended as a celebration of Urban VIII's rule.

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His last major commission for Urban VIII was for a fountain outside the family palace at Piazza Barberini. With the Triton Fountain, completed in 1642-1643, Bernini abandoned the staid, architectural format of earlier fountains to create a spectacle. Four dolphins, tails entwined around the papal coats of arms and supporting a giant bivalve, arise from a pool of water. The sea god Triton, seated in the middle of this great shell, blasts a stream of water heavenward from a massive conch shell. The base, basin and figure are integrated into an organic, poetic whole, which Bernini intended as a celebration of Urban VIII's rule.
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G. Massiot & cie
Circa 1910
Manifest
https://curate.nd.edu/show/0g354f18r9q
photographs

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