Bellini's Antique Italia Fountains

Absolutely Stunning Italian bronze water fountain Classical look complemented by the two gorgeous birds Love the birds depicted drinking from the rim of the main bowl Classical dra...

Antique Italian Bronze Fountain. Late 19th Century figure of a boy in a bronze Verdi Gris depicted holding a duck. The boy is standing on a platform with other ducklings at his feet....

An antique Breccia marble wall fountain. The scalloped water basin is supported by a dolphin sitting on a square base. The backsplash has a very detailed carved mask as the spout. Mi...

Small marble wall water feature with shell basin. Minor fading, scratches due to age. Wear consistent with age and use. Circa 20th Century, Italy.

Our Ancient Surfaces team recently reclaimed this extremely rare statuary fountain. The story behind this masterpiece is that a team of Italian master carvers were tasked to create an exceptionally phenomenal limestone fountain for a noble Milano family estate. After 8 months of hand-carving they completed the job by creating a very unique and large pool fountain...

Beautiful refined garden fountain with statue in neoclassical style, 20th century main material mixed with grit marble dust and cement. This beautiful and majestic fountain is made u...

An antique Italian wall mounted fountain basin in a late Gothic style with central sun in low relief or "bas relief" on a detailed pedestal in Rosso Verona marble with patina. Minor ...

Striking fountain made of solid, hand-hewn granite. The rectangular basin measures 90 × 370 × 120 cm (H × W × D), accompanied by a prominent spout column measuring 235 × 62 × 50 cm. ...

Gothic Hand Carved Stone Surround Architectural Element Wall Mount Fountain Idea . A Beautiful and Rare Gothic 15th Century Carved Stone Window Sur...

Sea monster Carrara marble mouth fountain Italy, late 16th century It measures 13.8 x 31.5 x 18.9 in (35 x 80 x 48 cm) State of conservation: some small evident gaps and widespread signs of wear due to outdoor exposure. The gray marks crossing it do not come from restoration, but are rather the natural veins of the marble. This work has some morphological characteristics typically associated with the iconography of the sea monster: an elongated muzzle, sharp teeth, protruding eyes, elongated ears, and a coiled serpent's tail. An in-depth series of studies on artistic depictions of the sea monster attempted to verify how this symbol evolved in antiquity in the European and Mediterranean contexts and how it gradually changed its image and function over time. The iconography itself is mutable and imaginative and its history is rich with cultural and artistic exchange, as well as the overlapping of ideas. This occurred so much that it is difficult to accurately pinpoint the "types" that satisfactorily represent its various developments. However, we can try to summarize the main figures, starting from the biblical Leviathan and the marine creature that swallowed Jonah (in the Christian version, this figure was to become a whale or a "big fish", the “ketos mega”, translation of the Hebrew “dag gadol”). Other specimens ranged from the dragons mentioned in the Iliad (which were winged and had legs) to "ketos” (also from Greek mythology), the terrifying being from whose Latinized name (“cetus”) derives the word "cetacean". See J. Boardman, “Very Like a Whale” - Classical Sea Monsters, in Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, in Papers presented in Honor of Edith Porada, Mainz am Rhein 1987, pp. 73-84). In Italy the monster underwent yet further variations: it can be found in Etruscan art on the front of some sarcophagi representing the companion of souls, while among the Romans we find the “Pistrice” (cited by Plinio in Naturalis Historia PLIN., Nat., II 9, 8 and by Virgilio in Eneide: VERG., Aen., III, 427), which appeared in the shape of a stylized hippocampus or a very large monstrous cetacean and evolved into a hideous being with a dragon's head and long webbed fins. During the Middle Ages, the sea monster was the object of new transformations: at this time, it is often winged, the head is stretched like a crocodile, the front legs are often very sharp fins - sometimes real paws - until the image merges with dragons, the typical figures of medieval visionary spirituality widely found throughout Europe (on this topic and much more, see: Baltrušaitis, J., Il Medioevo fantastico. Antichità ed esotismi nell’arte gotica, Gli Adelphi 1997). In Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries, the revival of classicism - representative of the humanistic and Renaissance periods - led to a different reading of these "creatures". Indeed, the sea monster was also to find widespread use as an isolated decorative motif, especially in numerous fountains and sculptures where dolphins or sea monsters were used as a characterizing element linked to water (on this theme see: Chet Van Duzer, Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, London, The British library, 2013). From the morphological point of view, the "sea monsters" of this period are mostly depicted as hybrid figures, in which the body of a mythological or real being (a hippocampus, a sea snake, a dolphin), is joined to a head with a rather indistinct appearance. It was usually characterized by large upright ears, an elongated snout, sharp teeth and globular, protruding eyes; a complex and indefinite figure, both from the symbolic point of view and from that of its genesis. The work we are examining is placed as a cross between the medieval sea serpent and the Renaissance dolphin, with stylistic features which recall the snake as often used in heraldry (such as the "snake" depicted in the coat of arms of the Visconti - the lords and then dukes of Milan between 1277 and 1447 - and which, for some, may be derived from the representations of the “Pistrice” that swallowed Jonah). In the search for sources, Renaissance cartography and in particular woodcuts should not be neglected. See for example the monsters of Olaus Magnus, from the editions of the “Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus” (“History of the peoples of the north”) and the natural histories of Conrad Gesner, Ulisse...

Made out of concrete, this decoration from 20th-century Italy takes influences from Gothic architecture. With its face covered in vine leaves, this mascaron...

A most impressive and extremely decorative Italian 18th-century Baroque period marble fountain. The marble fountain is raised by a white Carrara marble and Vert De Patricia marble ba...