Description
The Fountain of Orion is the large marble fountain in Piazza del Duomo, in Messina, carved in the mid-16th century by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, a collaborator of Michelangelo. The art historian Bernard Berenson called it "the most beautiful fountain of 16th-century Europe".
It is shaped like a pyramid of figures and stacked basins. At the top stands Orion, the giant who according to myth founded Messina, with his faithful dog Sirius at his feet. With one hand he waves, with the other he leans on the city's shield.
Below him four putti ride dolphins that pour water into the bowl beneath. Going down, the basins grow wider, held up by four naiads and then by four tritons, down to the large twelve-sided basin that forms the base.
On the rim of the large basin sit the four rivers, male figures: the Nile, the Tiber, the Ebro and the Camaro. The first three evoke Egypt, Rome and Spain; the fourth is the small Messina stream that feeds the fountain.
Between the rivers, eight bas-reliefs tell myths about water from Ovid's Metamorphoses. All around the base, four smaller basins and eight sea monsters in black stone complete the composition.
The fountain was born to celebrate a public work: the city's first aqueduct, which brought the waters of the Camaro and Bordonaro streams to Messina. The Senate saw it completed in 1547 and that same year decided to celebrate it with a fountain.
Montorsoli came from Florence with his pupil Martino Montanini, had the marble brought from Carrara and worked with Domenico Vanello and many local sculptors. According to Vasari, the fountain was finished in a short time: it was complete in 1553.
The intricate program of figures, between myth and alchemical symbols, was almost certainly devised with the Messina scientist Francesco Maurolico. He composed the Latin couplets carved beneath the river statues; today a crater on the Moon also bears his name.
The result was so well liked that the Senate commissioned a second fountain from Montorsoli: the Fountain of Neptune, near the port. Under Corso Cavour the 16th-century aqueduct tunnel still runs, once linking the center to the Camaro area.
Don't miss
• Orion with the dog Sirius.
• The four rivers.
• The bas-reliefs of the Metamorphoses.
Did you know?
• According to myth, Orion was born of three fathers: Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury.
• The fountain faced the church of San Lorenzo, rebuilt by Montorsoli himself and destroyed in the 1783 earthquake.
It is shaped like a pyramid of figures and stacked basins. At the top stands Orion, the giant who according to myth founded Messina, with his faithful dog Sirius at his feet. With one hand he waves, with the other he leans on the city's shield.
Below him four putti ride dolphins that pour water into the bowl beneath. Going down, the basins grow wider, held up by four naiads and then by four tritons, down to the large twelve-sided basin that forms the base.
On the rim of the large basin sit the four rivers, male figures: the Nile, the Tiber, the Ebro and the Camaro. The first three evoke Egypt, Rome and Spain; the fourth is the small Messina stream that feeds the fountain.
Between the rivers, eight bas-reliefs tell myths about water from Ovid's Metamorphoses. All around the base, four smaller basins and eight sea monsters in black stone complete the composition.
The fountain was born to celebrate a public work: the city's first aqueduct, which brought the waters of the Camaro and Bordonaro streams to Messina. The Senate saw it completed in 1547 and that same year decided to celebrate it with a fountain.
Montorsoli came from Florence with his pupil Martino Montanini, had the marble brought from Carrara and worked with Domenico Vanello and many local sculptors. According to Vasari, the fountain was finished in a short time: it was complete in 1553.
The intricate program of figures, between myth and alchemical symbols, was almost certainly devised with the Messina scientist Francesco Maurolico. He composed the Latin couplets carved beneath the river statues; today a crater on the Moon also bears his name.
The result was so well liked that the Senate commissioned a second fountain from Montorsoli: the Fountain of Neptune, near the port. Under Corso Cavour the 16th-century aqueduct tunnel still runs, once linking the center to the Camaro area.
Don't miss
• Orion with the dog Sirius.
• The four rivers.
• The bas-reliefs of the Metamorphoses.
Did you know?
• According to myth, Orion was born of three fathers: Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury.
• The fountain faced the church of San Lorenzo, rebuilt by Montorsoli himself and destroyed in the 1783 earthquake.