The Trevi Fountain
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John A. Pinto
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Format: ClothPrice: $47.00
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The Trevi Fountain deserves recognition as one of a select group of monuments, the form and meaning of which produce a resonance transcending the culture and age that conceived them. A survey of artists stimulated by the Trevi, from Piranesi and Chambers to Fellini and Charles Moore, attests to the range of its impact as well as to its enduring value as an artistic metaphor. In a comprehensive study of the fountain, John A. Pinto traces the history of the Trevi from its origins in 19 B.C.—when the water that still feeds the Trevi was first brought to Rome—to the completion of the fountain in 1762. His fascinating book demonstrates that the Trevi's form and meaning are inextricably bound up with the history and fabric of Rome itself.
Pinto draws on archival documents and drawings, many of them unpublished, to analyze the numerous proposals for embellishing the Trevi in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and to clarify Nicola Salvi's role in the design of the fountain. Throughout, Pinto emphasizes the fountain's relationship to the urban environment of Rome; he shows that the location and proposed appearance of the Trevi were influenced by the intersection of private and public interests. As a result of his research, the Trevi emerges both as a compelling symbol of Rome's classical heritage and as a concrete reality that posed specific design problems for architects, sculptors, and their patrons.
"The Trevi Fountain contains a wealth of new insights and newly uncovered material. Those interested in Rome and in fountains, indeed in what may be the most famous fountain in the world, as well as students of Roman architecture, patronage, and artistic theory in early eighteenth-century Rome, will find this book revealing, absorbing, and indispensable."—Henry Millon, Dean Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art
"John Pinto's scrupulous analysis of this 'remarkable fusion of architecture, sculpture and water' certainly goes much further than mere appreciation of it as a highly entertaining tourist attraction. He studies it with enormous seriousness, considering it one of those 'rare monuments' that produce 'a resonance transcending the culture and age that conceived them.'"—Christopher Andreae, Christian Science Monitor
"Pinto's excellent monograph on the Trevi Fountain is . . . very welcome. . . . This well-produced and well-illustrated book is . . . able to throw important light on a very great deal more than is indicated in its title."—Francis Haskell, The Times Literary Supplement
"A fascinating study of art, politics, [and] social conditions. In this exceedingly interesting book John Pinto uses original documents to trace the fountain's history."—Architecture
"The Trevi Fountain now has a worthy monograph."—Alastair Laing, Country Life
"John A. Pinto's excellent monograph on the Trevi Fountain is . . . very welcome. . . . This well-produced and well illustrated book is . . . able to throw important light on a very great deal more than is indicated in its title."—Francis Haskell, The Times Literary Supplement
"Pinto well describes the vital importance and the vicissitudes of the Roman water supply in the social life of the city, and repeatedly offers fresh and stimulating insights into the urban development of Rome down the ages."—Choice
"A successful effort to integrate architectural history into urban history."—Josef W. Konvitz, American Historical Review
"Lucid, lively, and straightforward prose. . . . As a comprehensive study of a major Roman monument, John Pinto's The Trevi Fountain serves a fundamental need in Settecento studies: the investigation of a monument in its urban, political, and cultural contexts. . . . John Pinto has made a lasting contribution to Roman studies. The Trevi Fountain is an excellent model for future scholars and now takes its definitive place as the indispensable study of the Eternal City's most celebrated fountain."—Christopher M. S. Johns, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
"[An] intelligent, learned book . . . much more than a monograph on a single work of art. . . . It is John Pinto's extraordinary ability to ground the Trevi within expansive cultural values and traditions that makes this book a model for any study of a single monument."—Vernon Hyde Minor, Italica
Publication Date: September 10, 1986
185 b/w illus.
