Description
The Fontana di Gennaro, whose real name is the Fountain of Aquarius, is a marble fountain from 1602 at the start of Corso Cavour, in the center of Messina. A young Aquarius sits on a globe surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.
On an octagonal basin of pink marble, a tall pedestal supports the globe, representing the world or the celestial sphere, encircled by a band with the twelve signs of the zodiac. At its base there are four masks.
At the top sits Aquarius: a nude, athletic young man holding two amphorae. Until 1870 water flowed both from the masks and from his jugs. The white marble, worn by time and scarred by the earthquake, looks almost unfinished, but the figure remains sturdy and full of movement.
The fountain was commissioned by the Senate of Messina, which dedicated it to King Philip III. The names of the six senators and the date were carved on a plaque on the nearby Palazzo Brunaccini, which was destroyed in the 1908 earthquake.
The historian Caio Domenico Gallo writes that it was erected "at the coming of the new year 1602", in the square of the parish of Sant'Antonio known as "di Jannò". The sculptor remains uncertain: it has been attributed to Rinaldo Bonanno, but he died in 1590, and it is more likely the work of one of his pupils.
The popular name is a small mystery too. Gennaro (January) may come from the month when the sun enters the sign of Aquarius, or from the name of the family that funded the work.
Another theory links it to Janus, the Roman god of doorways: a gate in the city walls opened in this area, and the square was called "di Jannò". But that the memory of a Roman cult survived until the 17th century seems unlikely.
Mutilated by the 1908 earthquake, the fountain was dismantled and kept for years at the museum. In the early 1930s, after restoration, it was reassembled not far from its original site, where it still stands.
On an octagonal basin of pink marble, a tall pedestal supports the globe, representing the world or the celestial sphere, encircled by a band with the twelve signs of the zodiac. At its base there are four masks.
At the top sits Aquarius: a nude, athletic young man holding two amphorae. Until 1870 water flowed both from the masks and from his jugs. The white marble, worn by time and scarred by the earthquake, looks almost unfinished, but the figure remains sturdy and full of movement.
The fountain was commissioned by the Senate of Messina, which dedicated it to King Philip III. The names of the six senators and the date were carved on a plaque on the nearby Palazzo Brunaccini, which was destroyed in the 1908 earthquake.
The historian Caio Domenico Gallo writes that it was erected "at the coming of the new year 1602", in the square of the parish of Sant'Antonio known as "di Jannò". The sculptor remains uncertain: it has been attributed to Rinaldo Bonanno, but he died in 1590, and it is more likely the work of one of his pupils.
The popular name is a small mystery too. Gennaro (January) may come from the month when the sun enters the sign of Aquarius, or from the name of the family that funded the work.
Another theory links it to Janus, the Roman god of doorways: a gate in the city walls opened in this area, and the square was called "di Jannò". But that the memory of a Roman cult survived until the 17th century seems unlikely.
Mutilated by the 1908 earthquake, the fountain was dismantled and kept for years at the museum. In the early 1930s, after restoration, it was reassembled not far from its original site, where it still stands.