Fountain of Neptune in Bologna

Brief information

Bologna’s Neptune was nicknamed “al Żigànt,” meaning “the giant,” not only because of the statue’s size. The fountain was installed on a specially cleared site: a row of buildings on the square was demolished for it. It was meant to adorn the urban space and symbolize the election of Pius IV as pope, but the square quickly read it differently: as a large, convenient source of water in the city center.

It is precisely this gap between intention and everyday life that changes how one sees the fountain. Vendors from nearby Piazza Maggiore washed and cleaned vegetables here, washerwomen laundered clothes, and later the authorities even enclosed the fountain with a high metal fence with gates. The fence stood until 1888. Today this helps us see the monument not only as a ceremonial sculpture, but also as an object of urban struggle over who uses the square and how.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing the fountain’s three levels: the steps at the base, the stone and marble basin, and then the bronze figure of Neptune. This vertical structure makes everyday water part of a theatrical composition: below is the point of contact with the square, higher up is the basin with inscriptions, and higher still is the 420 cm-tall god of the sea.

The basin is made of local boulder stone and Veronese marble, so the material also plays on the contrast between the urban base and the more ceremonial finish. Latin inscriptions about the construction are placed on the four sides of the marble basin; they can be read as an official frame around the water that townspeople soon used in an entirely unofficial way. One separate detail is Neptune’s trident: it was this that gave the Maserati brothers the idea for the emblem of the first Maserati Tipo 26 car, so the car company’s symbol grew out of a specific urban sculpture.