Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt
Accession Number
1931-94-66
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Behold the intricate print *Bernini's Fountain of the Rivers* by François de Poilly the Younger a French engraver (1671–1723) who captured the grandeur of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's masterpiece around 1707. This work reproduces the dramatic Fontana dei Fiumi in Rome's Piazza Navona, in 1651. Bernini's fountain allegorically celebrates the world's great rivers—ile, Ganges, Danube, and de la Plata—through dynamic sculptures of river gods amid rocky outcrops, an obelisk, and cascading water, embodying the exuberance of 17th-century Roman Baroque art. As a print, likely an engraving, Poilly's renditi...