Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers turns a rocky sculptural base into a stage for water, an ancient obelisk, and four personifications of rivers. Its figures map the continents as Europeans understood them in the seventeenth century, while a later legend invents a rivalry with the church opposite.
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Four monumental figures emerge from a carved rock around the obelisk, each representing a major river associated with a continent known in the seventeenth century. Bernini designed the fountain for Pope Innocent X, and it was unveiled in 1651.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- The fountain was unveiled on June 12, 1651.
- The four rivers are the Danube, Ganges, Nile, and Río de la Plata.
- The obelisk came from the area of the Circus of Maxentius.
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