About 1590 Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) for Sixtus V Peretti
(1585/90) who wanted to adorn the top of Via Felice with four statues of saints
placed in each corner of the crossroad
The statues
of saints were preferred four fountains that give the name of the street, each
surmounted by a recumbent statue:
The Arno River, with a lion, heraldic emblem of Florence
The Tiber River with the wolf and in the act of
supporting a cornucopia full of fruit
Fortitude or Juno, buxom woman represented with regal
symbols: the lion and the crown
Loyalty or Diana, who is flanked by a dog and
leaning on a symbolic hill with three peaks, similar to the coat of arms of
Sixtus V
The
sculptors of the statues are not known, but maybe the drawings were by Pietro
Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669)
The “Background
reliefs representing countrysides” were added in 1668, probably on a design by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)
The
fountains were built using travertine blocks from the destroyed ancient Roman
monument known as Septizodium
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