A quickening of tempo appears from the figures of your four river gods produced by Bernini within the fountain in the middle in the Piazza Navona when compared with Giovanni Bologna's figures around the Fountain of Oceanus inside the Boboli Backyard garden. In Tribolo's river god for the Villa Corsini, Bernini experienced a good closer feasible prototype for his sprawling figures, representing the 4 continents of the world thrown into attitudes of wonder at beholding the obelisk erected by the munificence of Harmless X. Within this occasion the figures are of white marble, contrasting with their rocky placing, as in Montorsoli's rustic fountain in the triton at Genoa. The really allegory from the 4 river gods follows a protracted Florentine tradition, which seemingly commenced in 1536 While using the momentary figures erected with the Ponte Santa Trinita in honor of Charles V, and was continued by Montorsoli and Francesco Camilliani.
With the triton which he modeled in 1633 for the middle of the fountain erected inside the late sixteenth century at one particular close of The nice Piazza Navona, Bernini selected the aged motif of a determine that has a spouting dolphin. The standing central figure dominating lesser creatures of The ocean, present in numerous Tuscan fountains, is here brought to perfection, don't just while in the naturalism and impetuous movement from the statue, but also in its Exercise, through the torsion of your body given that the central ornament into a freestanding fountain. The skilful usage of contrapposto, the depth from the facial expression, plus the tossing of the tousled locks reinforce the impact of impassioned movement.
The pathos and agitation of baroque sculpture, like that of Scopas in antiquity, appear to be especially adapted on the representation of the restless creatures of The ocean. At the beginning look, it may well appear a much cry through the Neptunes of Ammannati and Giovanni Bologna, with their really hard modelling, to the liberty and verve of the figure; but Bernini's triumph might have been extremely hard with no prolonged and arduous exploration with the Florentine sculptors of your former century in the issues offered by a figure placed at the middle of the freestanding fountain.
Two of Bernini's isolated fountains are decorated with central figures of tritons spouting upward by way of a conch shell  the misplaced fountain from the Villa Mattei, built about 1629, recognized only from an etching in Falda, and also the well-known Fontana del Tritone, erected in the Piazza Barberini in 1640. As we have found in an earlier chapter, the motif of your triton spouting upward was regarded to Florentine sculptors while in the Cinquecento, and was even utilized as being here the central motif in excess of freestanding fountains.
In his later plus more monumental triton fountain, Bernini rejected the plurifacial treatment of his Tuscan prototypes for a less complicated frontal conception much more Consistent with the colossal proportions of his figure. His usage of travertine like a medium is especially satisfied. Darkened because of the water, and overgrown with moss until It appears a Portion of mother nature, this stone dissolves in to the bordering atmosphere additional quickly compared to the white marble usually employed at Florence.