THE RENAISSANCE NYMPHAEUM: ITS ORIGINS AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN ROME AND VICINITY

The Renaissance nymphaeum is a revival of the ancient rustic fountain grotto, or of rustic fountains that allude to such grottoes. Because the term "nymphaeum" was not usually applied in ancient Roman or Renaissance times to such fountains, we here give the term the Greek connotation of grotto-sanctuary of the nymphs, and apply it to any fountain or architectural space provided with water that reflects the natural spring grotto in the rusticity of its decoration.;The vogue for fountain grottoes and rustic fountains soon reached Rome, where they proliferated in the early sixteenth century and whence the fashion spread to other parts of Italy and Europe.;Although the great variety of forms assumed by nymphaea makes a precise classification of types difficult, the nymphaeum can be divided into five main categories: the niche; the grotto or chamber; the fontanone rustico; the water theater; and the facade nymphaeum.;The primary function of the nymphaeum was to delight and entertain. Like its ancient forerunners, the nymphaeum served as an escape from excessive summer heat and a place for relaxation and dining. In the artificial world of the nymphaeum art vied openly with nature. Water was displayed in a variety of ways, sometimes imitating natural sources, other times creating fantastic designs--and even soaking the spectator. The force of moving water was utilized to power moving figures, to perform pneumatic tricks, and to create artificial bird-song and music. If not at hand water for the fountains was brought by means of aqueducts; complex mechanical devices were sometimes used to raise groundwater to a height from which it could flow to the fountain.;Ancient rustic fountains fell out of favor some time after the second century A.D. After an apparent lapse of about one thousand years, fountain chambers modeled after Roman nymphaea, but lacking the rustic references to the grotto, appeared in Islamic Egypt and Sicily. The best preserved of these are the fountain halls in the Norman garden palaces in Palermo. These fountain halls, together with ancient remains of nymphaea and ancient literary descriptions of grottoes, could well have sparked the revival of the nymphaeum--in its true, rustic form--in the late fifteenth-century grotto of the villa of Poggio Reale in Naples.;The nymphaeum was the typical Renaissance garden fountain. Although at times provided with complex iconographic programs, the most common forms of decoration in nymphaea were representations of pagan deities associated with water and fertility, such as water nymphs, river gods, Venus, etc. During the Counter Reformation, papal heraldic animals and allegorical figures sometimes replaced the ancient gods as purveyors of water--i.e., divine grace--to mankind.;Rustic fountains enjoyed great popularity throughout the sixteenth century and during the first two decades of the seventeenth. Later, the taste for rustic fountains declined sharply in the vicinity of Rome; the nymphaeum survived mostly in the shape of modest courtyard fountains. In northern Italy and other parts of Europe the vogue for more elaborate rustic fountains and grottoes continued well into the eighteenth century.