Drawings for the great fountains of Rome and Paris

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 1998 by Marilyn Symmes

3 See Pinto, The Trevi Fountain, p. 31.

4 Ibid, p. 121.

5 Ibid, p. 221.

6 See Daniel Rabreau, "Fontaine des Quatre Saisons ou de Grenelle" and "Sculpture et iconographie," in Dominique Massounie et al., Paris et ses fontaines (Delegation a l'Action artistique de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1995), pp. 98-103, 150-157; Alphonse Roserot, "La Fontaine de la rue de Grenelle a Paris par Edme Bouchardon," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 28 (1902-II), pp. 353-372; and Fountains: Splash and Spectacle, pp. 40-42.

7 His competition drawing is in the Musee Municipal/Antoine Vivenel in Compiegne, France. It is discussed and illustrated in Pinto, The Trevi Fountain, pp. 112-113 and Fig. 75. Another drawing by Bouchardon, which is an unpublished variant proposal for the Trevi Fountain, is in a private collection in Paris. I am grateful to Peter Fuhring for bringing this discovery to my attention.

8 Eighteen drawings related to the Fontaine des Quatre Saisons are in the Musee du Louvre in Paris. See Jean Guiffrey and Pierre Marcel, Inventing general des dessins du Musee du Louvre et du Musee de Versailles. Ecole francaise, vol. 2 (Librairie Centrale d'Art et d'Architecture, Paris, 1908), Nos. 867-884. For illustrations of the terra-cotta maquettes (now in the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Dijon) see Gerold Weber, "Dessins et Maquettes d'Edme Bouchardon," Revue de l'art, vol. 6 (1969), pp. 43-47.

9 This is reinforced by the Latin inscription on the fountain, which can be translated: "Because Louis XV was beloved by his people, of whom he was an excellent father, and because he was the bulwark of public tranquility, after having extended the borders of the Kingdom of France without spilling blood and having overseen the establishment of peace between the Germans and Russians and the subjects of the Ottoman Empire, and because he reigned both gloriously and peacefully, the chief magistrate of the merchants and magistrates in charge of public works have dedicated this fountain to the service of the citizens and for the embellishment of the city in the year 1739." See Roserot, "La Fontaine de la rue de Grenelle," p. 360; and Rabreau, "Fontaine des Quatre Saisons ou de Grenelle," p. 100.

10 Quoted in Renzo Salvadori, Architect's Guide to Paris (Butterworth Architecture, London, 1990), p. 67.

11 For the history of the redesign and iconography of this square see Donald David Schneider, The Works and Doctrine of Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792-1867) (Garland Publishing, New York and London, 1977), vol. 1, pp. 365-430; and Hittorff, Un architecte du XIXe siecle (Musee Carnavalet, Paris, 1986), pp. 75-109.

12 The German-born Hittorff had established himself in Paris as a designer of decorations for royal ceremonies, including the coronation of Charles X in 1825. He also designed the Church of Saint Vincent de Paul (1824-1844) and the Gare du Nord (1861-1866), both in Paris.

13 See Schneider, The Works and Doctrine of Jacques Ignace Hittorff, vol. 1, p. 382.

14 Several people may have influenced the king on Hittorff's behalf, including the esteemed German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the German diplomat H. A. A. von Werther, the French minister of the interior Louis Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877), and C. P. B. Rambuteau, who was appointed prefect of the Seine in 1833. Rambuteau's appointment came in the wake of a terrible cholera epidemic, so besides overseeing practical matters in connection with the water system, he welcomed involvement in a major fountain project celebrating water. See ibid., pp. 365, 384; and Dominique Massounie, "1830-1845: L'Essor des fontaines monumentales," in Massounie et al., Paris et ses fontaines, pp. 171-173.