A quickening of tempo seems inside the figures of the 4 river gods established by Bernini around the fountain in the middle with the Piazza Navona compared with Giovanni Bologna's figures to the Fountain of Oceanus while in the Boboli Backyard. In Tribolo's river god in the Villa Corsini, Bernini experienced an even nearer feasible prototype for his sprawling figures, symbolizing the 4 continents of the earth thrown into attitudes of marvel at beholding the obelisk erected through the munificence of Innocent X. On this instance the figures are of white marble, contrasting with their rocky placing, as in Montorsoli's rustic fountain from the triton at Genoa. The incredibly allegory of the four river gods follows a long Florentine custom, which seemingly commenced in 1536 Together with the non permanent figures erected on the Ponte Santa Trinita in honor of Charles V, and was continued by Montorsoli and Francesco Camilliani.
For the triton which he modeled in 1633 for the middle of the fountain erected from the late sixteenth century at one finish of The nice Piazza Navona, Bernini selected the previous motif of the figure using a spouting dolphin. The standing central determine dominating lesser creatures of the sea, existing in so many Tuscan fountains, is in this article brought to perfection, not just in the naturalism and impetuous movement from the statue, but additionally in its Physical fitness, through the torsion of the body given that the central ornament into a freestanding fountain. The skilful usage of contrapposto, the intensity of the facial expression, and the tossing with 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 particularly tailored into the representation from the restless creatures of the sea. To start with glance, it may appear a much cry through the Neptunes of Ammannati and Giovanni Bologna, with their difficult modelling, to the freedom and verve of this figure; but Bernini's triumph might have been unattainable without the prolonged and arduous exploration on the Florentine sculptors on the earlier century in the issues presented by a determine placed at the center of the freestanding fountain.
Two of Bernini's isolated website fountains are decorated with central figures of tritons spouting upward by way of a conch shell  the lost fountain with the Villa Mattei, produced about 1629, recognised only from an etching in Falda, plus the renowned Fontana del Tritone, erected in the Piazza Barberini in 1640. As We now have seen in an earlier chapter, the motif with the triton spouting upward was recognized to Florentine sculptors while in the Cinquecento, and was even used given that the central motif more than freestanding fountains.
In his later and a lot more monumental triton fountain, Bernini turned down the plurifacial cure of his Tuscan prototypes for an easier frontal conception extra Consistent with the colossal proportions of his determine. His utilization of travertine for a medium is particularly content. Darkened with the drinking water, and overgrown with moss until it seems a Portion of nature, this stone dissolves into the encompassing atmosphere extra conveniently than the white marble normally utilised at Florence.