LUCE estratti LUCE 318_Malgrande_Fontana di Trevi | Page 7

The current impressive exhibition started in 1732
basing on Nicola Salvi’s design, which was
selected after a competition. The works were
carried on in different phases. A first
inauguration was held by Pope Clement XII in
1735, a following one was held by Pope Benedict
XIV in 1744 and, the final one, was held in 1762
(thirty years after) following the completion
by Pannini – since in the meantime Salvi
deceased – with the groups by Pietro Bracci
and the statues by Filippo Della Valle with the
then Pope Clement XIII.
The fountain covers the whole minor side
of Palazzo Poli, for a length of 20 m and 26 m
of height. The marble cliff carries in the center
the Oceanus statue on a shell-shaped carriage
pulled by two horses guided by Tritons that
symbolize the two sides of the sea: a quiet and
a rough one. The huge tank represents the sea.
In the highest part of the façade Clement XII’s
emblem with the two Fames can be found.
Below there are the Four Seasons’ statues, two
small recesses that represent respectively the
young girl that points the water veins to soldiers
and Agrippa that orders the construction of the
aqueduct and, at last, the recesses with the
statues of Abundance and Salubrity.
The Trevi Fountain
comes back to light
T
o increase Rome’s expansion in the
Campomarzio valley, started and favoured
by the emperor Gaius Octavius (27 b.C. –
14 a.D.), his son-in-law Menenius Agrippa
in the year 19 b.C. (Frontinus even left us the
day of the inauguration: 9th June) brought
in the city the sixth roman aqueduct.
It was called “Virgo” since a young girl pointed
some veins to roman soldiers seeking water
to quench their thirst, who, following them,
found a big spring. The place is now called
Salone and it is located on the via Collatina
toward Tivoli.
The aqueduct should have ended at the
Pantheon (another work of Agrippa but
completely rebuilt after fires and collapses
by the emperor Hadrian 117 a.D. – 137 a.D.)
but instead it was ended in the current Trevi
square. It has been the less devastated by the
sad events that the city underwent following
invasions and raids. This privilege depends
mainly on its limited length compared to the
other aqueducts, which is a total 21 km for the
greatest part underground. Another privilege
is related to the first renovations by the Popes,
during the Middle Age, to serve a densely
populated area.
It is important to remember that Vitige, head
of the Goths’ army, in 537 a.D. during the siege
of Rome broke off in some points the arches of
the aqueducts that for centuries have brought
into the city real streams. At the end of the
aqueduct was then realized a fountain for the
everyday use of citizens and, next to it a drinking
trough for animals. The current orientation of the
fountain is the one designed by Bernini who was
appointed by Pope Urban VIII to develop a study
because, originally, the orientation was
orthogonal compared to the current one with
the facade oriented toward West, as it is possible
to observe in some old plans of Rome.
The name Trevi was given to the Virgo aqueduct
from a disappeared toponym “Trebium” placed
near the spring.
Fountains’ lighting: history
of the criteria used in the past
The first attempts of fountain lighting were
made during the time Rome started the public
lighting’s transformation, at the beginning
of the twentieth century, going from the old
gas burner and incandescent nets to the
electric and arc lamps.
The first applications were made in the piazza
dell'Esedra to light the fountain with the Mario
Rutelli’s statues. To do so the crossed lights
of two projectors placed on the top of two long
antennas were casted. In this way, the light
beams lit the fountain but they also generated
annoying glare phenomena and thus, after
a short time, the system was abandoned.
In 1904 a similar system was developed for the
Trevi Fountain, with wood candelabra topped
by a lantern with two 32 A lamps with air
supply. Afterward electric lamps were placed
in the existing candelabra that until that
moment were equipped with gas lighting.
For the fountain and the cliff, a quite original
solution was adopted, developed after several
trials, based on the installation of projectors
on the top of the lanterns of two candelabra.
The projectors were hidden by a silhouette
that copied the lantern’s shape on the three
sides of the square, keeping the one toward
the Fountain free.
In the second half of the twenties, the
technicians of the then Azienda Elettrica
del Governatorato (now ACEA SpA), dealt with
the problem of underwater lighting realizing
special lanterns made of copper and bronze,
with rubber sealing gaskets, equipped with
incandescent lamps and supplied with under
lead electric ropes.
Then the first application was again the Esedra
Fountain and then this criterion was extended
to the fountains of the Quirinal, St. Peter’s
Square, Farnese square and the Four Rivers
one in piazza Navona. As a consequence of the
so-called “austerity” caused by the Kippur
war in 1973, all artistic lighting systems,
DESIGNING LIGHT / LUCE 318
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