210 



DECORATIVE GARDENING. 



P^T'^*« 



Fig-. 51. ^'Fountain of the Palazzo Fornesi. 



on the Campagna. To usher this 

 restored supply of the precious ele- 

 ment into the " Eternal City" with 

 due " pomp and circumstance," a 

 magnificent architectural composi* 

 tion was erected on the slope of the 

 Janiculan hilK between the columns 

 of which three grandly designed 

 apertures appear, from which three 

 torrents — for no other term will suf- 

 ficiently express the bulk of water — ■ 

 fall with a deafening sound, amid a 

 cloud of spray, into three gigantic 

 tazze, from which conduits carry 

 the water to supply many of the 

 greater, and an endless number of 

 the lesser fountains of Rome. 



The fountains on the Piazza .._ 



Sa?i' Piefro are, perhaps, the finest 

 detached specimens of purely deco- 

 rative fountains in existence. They 

 are the work of Cfirlo Maderno ; 

 and such is the magnificent charac- 

 ter of this simple design — the quan- 

 tity of water thrown up, and falling 

 in clouds of spray, in which, at a certain hour, 

 one or more rainbows are distinctly seen — 

 that, even immediately in front of St. Peter's, 

 one of the largest and most imposing build- 



ings in the world, their effect, 

 so far from being insignificant, 

 is most grand and imposing. 

 These, with the great fountain 

 of Trevi, have afforded Madame 

 de Stael subject for some of her 

 most eloquent, descriptive pas- 

 sages in her admirable novel, 

 " Corhine, ou Vltalie.'''' 



Fig. 56 is a small, and, of 

 course, inadequate, representa- 

 tion of one of the fountains of 

 St. Peter's ; fig. 57, that of the 

 Palazzo Fornesi ; and fig. 58, 

 another grand and simple exam- 

 ple of the fountains of Rome — 

 that of the Court of the Belvi- 

 dere. 



In these fountains the abun- 

 dance of water always forms 

 the grandest feature — a mere 

 squirt is but a carricature in 

 comparison ; for, to cite a pas- 

 sage recently quoted by Emer- 

 son in his Representative Men, 



Fiff. 5?.- 



-Fountain of the Vatican, in the Court of the Belvidere. 



" A single drop of sea-water possesses all the 

 chemical properties of the great ocean of which 

 it is a part, but it is incapable of representing 

 the phenomenon of a storm." 



