The Fountain of Dea Roma
In about 1536 Michelangelo created the fountain in Campidoglio known as the “Senate steps” or “Pallas kidnapped”. It was not intended as a fountain (water did not reach the Campidoglio until about fifty years later) but rather as a superb ornament in the square. In the central niche in the steps Michelangelo inserted a colossal statue of Minerva found today in the courtyard of the Capitoline museum. The statue remained there for about ten years and was then replaced by the actual, much smaller one of the goddess Roma triumphans. The statue of the goddess Roma raised on three bases has a marble face and extremities whilst the drapes are in porphyre. On either side of the large niche in the light of the steps Michelangelo inserted two enormous statues representing the rivers Nile and Tigris that originally adorned the thermal baths of Constantine on the Quirinale hills. The Romans wanted to transform the Tigris into the Tiber and therefore changed the tiger into a wolf and placed it beside Romulus and Remus. In order to change the entire complex of the Senate steps into a fountain, something that the architect Giacomo della Porta opposed vigorously, a competition was announced and won in January 1588 by Matteo Bartolani of the Città di Castello. (Source: www.thais.it/)
The fountain of lions
Two black Numidian basalt Egyptian lions were placed in 1562 at the bottom of the steps that lead to the Campidoglio square on the bases designed by della Porta. They originally decorated the entrance to the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco. In 1587 when Acqua Felice was brought to the Capitoline hills, and there was a lack of running water after the aqueduct Marcio was interrupted, the two lions were modified and changed into fountains. In 1588, the stone cutter Francesco Scardua following the designs of Camillo Rusconi, carved two shells to collect the water from the channels inserted into the lions’ mouths. On at least two occasions for the election of both Pope Innocence X Pamphili (1644-1655) and Pope clemente X Altieri (1670-1676) the fountains gushed red and white wine. (Source: www.thais.it/)
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