{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O148450"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O148450/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AW3320/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AW3320/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AW3320","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA0572","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KX0433","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O148450/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O148450","accessionNumber":"CAI.416","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"A design for a fountain","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the central figure of the Italian Baroque. This drawing appears to be a design for the fountain of Neptune for the Ducal palace at Sassuolo, near Modena. The figure of Neptune, holding a dolphin, balances on an arched rock. The fountain is still in situ, framed in a niche as shown in the drawing.","physicalDescription":"Design for a fountain with Neptune balancing on an arched rock, wrestling with a stylised dolphin.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Bernini, Gian Lorenzo","id":"A8146"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pen and ink","id":"x30618"},{"text":"wash","id":"AAT11051"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and ink and wash","categories":[{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"}],"styles":[{"text":"Roman","id":"AAT20533"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AW3320","2017KA0572","2018KX0433"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"IONIDES","shelf":"20","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Rome","id":"x29106"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1652-1653","earliest":"1647-01-01","latest":"1656-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"40.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"27.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by C.A. Ionides, 1900","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bernini, Design for a fountain incorporating a figure of Neptune","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ward-Jackson, Peter, <u> Italian Drawings, Volume Two: 17th-18th Century </u>, London, 1979, pp. 20-22, cat. n. 628, illus.\r\n\r\nThe following is the full text of the entry:\r\n\r\nBERNINI, GIOVANNI LORENZO (1598-1680) \r\n\r\n628 \r\nDesign for a fountain: a water god seated on a rock holding a dolphin, before an arched niche \r\n\r\nOn the back in ink an attribution to Gaulli and the inscription 'bought at Reveley's sale 11 May 1852' \r\nPen and ink and wash \r\n16 x 10 3/4 (406 x 273) \tCAI.416\r\nPROVENANCE Earl Spencer (Lugt 1532); H. Reveley (sale, Christie, 11 May 1852); Ionides Bequest 1901 (Lugt 488) \r\nLITERATURE Ionides Catalogue, p. 11 (as by Giovanni Battista GaulIi); H. Voss, 'Berninis Fontanen' in Prussian Jahrbuch, 31, 1910, p. 114; Brauer and Wittkower, I, p. 53; and 2, pl. 159a; R. Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 2nd ed., 1966, p. 267, no. 80(5), fig. 124.\r\n \r\nThe drawing appears to be a design for the fountain of Neptune which Ercole Antonio Raggi, Bernini's assistant, made for the ducal palace at Sassuolo, near Modena. The fountain is still in situ, framed in a niche, as in the drawing, in the courtyard opposite the main entrance of the palace. There is a terracotta model for it, attributed to Raggi, in the Estense Gallery, Modena. The same design is shown in a drawing in black chalk at one time in the Marquis de Talleyrand's collection (Brauer and Wittkower, 2, pl. 34)• Brauer and Wittkower ascribed the Talleyrand drawing to Bernini himself, but our drawing to his school. Wittkower subsequently changed his mind and attributed our drawing to Bernini himself, as stated in the monograph quoted. Some letters in the Archivio di Stato in Modena, written between August 1652 and March 1653, show that Bernini submitted two drawings of a fountain to the Duke of Modena and that the Duke approved of the designs. There is a short account of the correspondence in S. Fraschetti, Il Bernini, Milan, 1900, p. 229. \r\n\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"pp. 246-7","free":"Edited by Michael W. Cole ; with essays by Michael W. Cole, Davide Gasparotto, Alina Payne ... [et al.] ; [curated by Oliver Tostmann and Michael W. Cole]. Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini : sculptors' drawings from Renaissance Italy Boston : Isabella tewart Gardner Museum ; London : Paul Holberton, 2014. ISBN: 9781907372704."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Sassuolo, near Modena","id":"x42181"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Neptune","id":"N224"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"dolphin (animal)","id":"x30140"},{"text":"fountains","id":"AAT6179"},{"text":"rock","id":"AAT11692"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"wrestling","id":"x36315"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CAI.416"],"accessionNumberNum":"416","accessionNumberPrefix":"CAI","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-18","recordCreationDate":"2008-03-28","availableToBook":false}}