Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/118

106 making in all the eight above-mentioned. The four angular faces which project forward, forming a kind of ressault, leave space to four plane surfaces which all recede; and in the midst is a Basin of considerable size, which receives water in great abundance from four river-gods of marble: these figures are so placed that they surround the body of the basin and are seen on all the eight faces of the fountain.

The whole fabric of the fountain is raised on four steps, which have twelve sides or faces, eight larger, which present an angular form, and four smaller on which are placed vases. Beneath the four river-gods are balusters five palms high, and on each corner (of which there are in the whole twenty) there is placed the ornament of a Terminal figure. The circumference of the first basin is a hundred and two palms, and the diameter of the same is thirty-two palms; in each of the above-mentioned twenty angles there is a story in marble carved in basso-rilievo, the subjects of poetical invention, but appropriate to the place, and all touching waters and fountains—Pegasus that is to say, the blow of whose foot produces the Fount of Castaly, Europa borne through the sea, Icarus attempting to fly across and falling into the same, Arethusa turned into a Fountain, Jason traversing the Sea with the Golden Fleece, Narcissus changed into a Fountain, Diana surprised in the Bath and turning Actacon into a Stag, with other subjects of similar character.

In the eight angles which divide the ressaults from the steps of the fountain, two flights of which ascend towards the vases and the river-gods, while four are directed on the angular planes, are eight Marine Monsters in various forms: they are raised on socles in a recumbent position, with the fore-paws stretched in front of them, and reposing on masks, whence there pours water into smaller vases, or basins of a circular form. The river-gods, which are ranged on the edge, and which are placed on socles of such a height as to give them the appearance of being seated in the water, are the Nile, with seven children, the Tiber, surrounded by a vast number of palm-trees &nd trophies, the Ebro, with various symbols of the victories obtained by Charles V., and the Cremano, near Messina, from whose bed has been taken the water to supply this fountain. They are accompanied by figures of Nymphs and by stories, all giving proof of much thought and careful