Fontana di Pantaneto - Siena, Italy - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

"The first fountain at the site was built in 1457 using funds from the Comune of the city. The first fountain was merely an unceremonious niche in the wall with a basin. In the niche a sculpted head of an old lady, called the vecchia di Pantaneto was placed.

In 1807, the aristocrat Vinceslao Malavolti, after refurbishing his nearby Palazzo Sozzini, commissioned the architect Agostino Belli to embellish the fountain, and he drew up a Neoclassic-style project with doric columns, central basin and a statuary group with Neptune surrounded by four tritons, sculpted by Antonio Zini. But staining and leaching of the marble led to degradation of this pompous tableux, and by 1866, a new fountain was commissioned from the engineer Girolamo Tarducci. The engineer dismissed artistry, and reformulated the fountain as a basic functional public water source.

In 1997, the Contrada del Leocorno reconstructed the fountain under the designs of Carlo Nepi as two basins fed from the horns of two modern bronze unicorn (leocorno) heads, cast by the sculptor Francesco Carone. While in the center of the niche, surrounded by doric columns, is a round window, and below a plaque with the shield of Siena, are an announcement of the 1866 reconstruction. Below a droll mask also can provide water. The fountain's location in a narrow alley and the non-potable nature of the water detracts from the potential for either scenography or amenity. The eclectic ensemble with formal elements and marble basins but also with playful decoration, seems as confused as the history of its formulations. It main dignity is found in intimacy, a short caesura on a street that leads to the Loggia del Papa, which like this architectural structure, seems at loss for purpose, but unlike the present fountain, is not adrift in artistic style."

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/08/2019 lamiche37 visited it