Description
This book details the history of the beautiful Fonte Gaia in Siena, Italy. Created in the fifteenth century, the fountain was eventually replaced by a copy in the nineteenth century—a copy which itself is now old enough to need preservation. This book looks at the Italian Renaissance through the fate of the fountain, showing how both the Risorgimento and Purism have shaped our perceptions of the period and its art.
Chapter
1. Siena: Water and Power
Early Medieval Italian Fountains
The Contract for the First Fountain
Decoration of the First Fountain
Sources of Water for the Fountain
The History of the First Fountain
Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia and Its Chronology
Identifying the Fonte Gaia’s Parapet Sculptures
Acca Larentia and Rhea Silvia
Jacopo della Quercia’s Parapet Statues
Why the Fonte Gaia’s Parapet Sculptures Were Changed to Refer to Gaia, and Other Precedents for Its Iconography
The Influence of Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia in the Fifteenth Century
3. A History of Disrepair
Why the Fonte Gaia Was Damaged In Situ
Jacopo della Quercia’s Choice of Materials
Civic Events and Festivals: Bull Hunts, Markets, Buffalo Races, Palio
The Removal of the Fountain
Milanesi’s Crusade to Save the Fonte Gaia
Sarrocchi Carves a Replacement for della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia
The Fate of della Quercia’s Sculptures after Removal from the Piazza del Campo
The Relationship between Bruni’s Drawings and
Sarrocchi’s Sculptures
Cleaning della Quercia’s Fountain Pieces
New Discoveries: What the Restoration Uncovered
4. The Nineteenth-Century Fonte Gaia
Sarrocchi in Antonio Manetti’s Studio
The Artistic Climate at the Academy: Lorenzo Bartolini
and Giovanni Duprè
Sarrocchi’s Fonte Gaia: Commission and Reception
Faithful Copy or Purist Revision? A Comparison of Sarrocchi’s Fonte Gaia and della Quercia’s Original Monument
Appendix I: Preliminary Research on the Condition of the Fonte Gaia
Appendix II: Dismantling and Cleaning the Fonte Gaia
Document 1: Contracts of 22 January 1409 and 1 June 1412
Document 2: Letter to the Civic Magistrate of Siena from Gaspero Pini and Gaetano Milanesi, 18 July 1844
Document 3: Programma per rifare la Fonte Gaia della Piazza di Siena
The Fonte Gaia from Renaissance to Modern Times
：A History of Construction, Preservation, and Reconstruction in Siena
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