A European walk through Bordeaux. 3
3- The Visconti Fountains
Place de la Bourse
Louis Tullius
Joachim Visconti was born
in Rome on 11 February 1791 at Palazzo
Chigi, opposite the Giacomo della Porta fountain, into a famous family of Italian archaeologists. His grandfather, Giovanni Battista Antonio Visconti (1722-1784), founded
the Vatican Museum of which his
father was the curator. During his childhood in Rome, he experienced the hardships of his father, Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818), who after being
appointed Minister of the Interior on the arrival of the
French had to then abandon Italy to take refuge in Paris. His mother, left
alone with her two children
in Rome, was prosecuted and
all her property confiscated.
However, after
the Battle of Marengo, the French government gave the
order to return all the confiscated
property and provided her with the means
to reach France. When
Visconti arrived in Paris in
1801, he was 10 years old. Following
in the steps of his father, he was
appointed curator of antiquities and paintings at the
Louvre, and would go on to occupy
the most senior positions. In
1840, he created the ceremony held to mark the return
of Napoleon’s ashes, then built the tomb at the Invalides. In 1853, he was placed
in charge of connecting the Louvre and the Tuileries.
Visconti spent
all his childhood in Rome,
the city of 2,000 fountains, at which
time he developed a passion
that would never leave him.
For twenty years, from 1824 to 1849, Visconti worked
almost continuously on the
four fountains of Paris (a symbolic
and prophetic number): the
Gaillon fountain (1824-1828), the Louvois fountain (1835-1839), the Molière fountain
(1841-1843) and the Saint-Sulpice fountain
(1842-1848). Visconti had dreamt
of these Parisian fountains, desiring them one after another. As soon as a site became vacant in the city, he would imagine building a fountain
there. Placed in charge of demolishing the expiatory chapel in Rue de Richelieu, he thought about installing the
Louvois fountain there in homage to the four great rivers of France, the predecessor
of the fountain in Bordeaux. And when
the site slipped away, like in 16th century Rome, he used the back of the buildings
at the crossroads in Rue Richelieu to build the Molière fountain.
These fountains
were indeed his most famous
works. Eight years before his
death, he was preparing a major work, as a form of testament, writing a text presenting each fountain, his preferred
creations. When he learned, in
1852, that the government had authorised the city of
Bordeaux to borrow funds to
build monumental fountains,
he began preparing three projects: the Fontaine de Mercure [Fountain
of Mercury] for Place Dauphine, the fountain of the
city of Bordeaux for Place des Quinconces and the Fontaine des Trois Grâces [Fountain of the Three Graces], originally intended to replace the Tourny statue.
Visconti did
not have time to build his fifth fountain. Nor to see the Louvre connected to the Tuileries as he had imagined. He died of a heart attack in 1853. His son – who signed
the work devoted to the fountains – offered the city the drawings Visconti had not been
able to send, to pass on
“the great architect’s last
thoughts.” Only one would see the day,
the Fontaine des Trois Grâces, which was built in
1869. He had sketched them veiled, but they were built
naked. Visconti had imagined them in Place Tourny,
but they are in fact in
Place de la Bourse. Today, Aglaia,
Euphrosyne and Thalia pour their liquid
grace there, in echo to the stone pediments on which… …
Louis Visconti
– Fontaine Louvois, Rue de Richelieu à Paris. |
Louis Visconti
: Projet pour la Grande Fontaine de Bordeaux, Place des Quinconces. |
Louis Visconti. Projet pour la fontaine de Mercure, Place Dauphine, Bordeaux
[Gambetta actuelle]. |
Louis
Visconti : Projet pour la Fontaine des Trois-Grâces à Bordeaux.
Continue along the
quayside to Porte Cailhau.
© Bertrand Favreau
and Tyché Editions 2014
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