Triton and Naiad Fountain - Vienna, Austria
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 48° 12.295 E 016° 21.659
33U E 601119 N 5339972
This is one of four similar fountains on Maria Theresa Platz in Vienna
Waymark Code: WMK4AN
Location: Wien, Austria
Date Posted: 02/10/2014
Views: 13
This marble fountain is one of four similar fountain depicting Triton with a Naiad. Here, in a work by sculptor Anton Schmidgruber, Triton is portrayed as an older bearded and naked man with a cloth flowing over his right thigh. He sits on a conch shell and holds a paddle while a seated naked Naiad offers him a strand of pearls. Water spouts out of the mouths of fish and a turtle at the base.
This website has a photo of all four fountains (
visit link) and informs us (as translated by Google):
"Tritons and Najad Fountain
Tritons and Najad Fountain ( Artist: Edmund Paul Andreas Hofmann of Aspern castle ) on the Maria Theresa square between the Natural History and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in the first Innere Stadt district of Vienna located next to the central Maria Theresa monument four Tritons and Najad Fountain
Architectural History
The Maria Theresa Square , sometimes referred to as Maria Theresa Park was created between the two former imperial museums and should be part of the Imperial Forum . The opening took place simultaneously with the unveiling of Maria Theresa monument in 1888. 1890 Rossebändiger groups were established and built the fence .
Today , the entire ensemble monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.
Artistic design
The four Tritons and Najad Fountain form the centers of the four large lawns , which are formed by the major pathways of the Maria Theresa Square. The wells were built in the years 1887 to 1890 , the year of its formation . they were unveiled in 1894.
They were made ??of
Anton Schmidgruber,
Hugo Haerdtl and
Edmund Paul Andreas Hofmann of Aspern castle.
Together they are the circular basin with central groups of figures in Carrara marble on stylized rock formations of conglomerate rock and the four diagonal gargoyles. Specified Thematically were wells with naiads and tritons or human figures in the form of children.
From Edmund Paul Andreas Hofmann of Aspern castle of the fountain at the Museum road comes at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Just as Anton Schmid Gruber with his two fountains on Burgring he solved the task in which he physically divided the Tritons and nymph figures and enriched with individual motifs . Hugo Härdtl gave his burlesque fountain figures on the road at the Museum of Natural History a slight erotic coloring."