Fontaine des Innocents
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Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
located on the place Joachim-du-Bellay
Place Joachim-du-Bellay
Place Joachim-du-Bellay is a vast square located near the center of Paris, France, on the path of the 1st arrondissement of Paris.This square is located near Les Halles and the Pompidou Center, along with being surrounded by many ethic restaurants and stores, thus making this a well provided for...
in the Les Halles
Les Halles
Les Halles is an area of Paris, France, located in the 1er arrondissement, just south of the fashionable rue Montorgueil. It is named for the large central wholesale marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles...
district in the 1st arrondissement of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Originally called the Fountain of the Nymphs, it was constructed between 1547 and 1550 by architect Pierre Lescot
Pierre Lescot
Pierre Lescot was a French architect active during the French Renaissance, "the man who was first responsible for the implantation of pure and correct classical architecture in France." He was born in Paris....
and sculptor Jean Goujon
Jean Goujon
Jean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.-Biography:His early life is little known; he was likely born in Normandy and may have traveled in Italy...
in the new style of the French Renaissance
French Renaissance
French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
. It is the oldest monumental fountain in Paris.
History
The fountain was commissioned as part of the decoration of the city to commemorate the solemn royal entryRoyal Entry
The Royal Entry, also known by various other names, including Triumphal Entry and Joyous Entry, embraced the ceremonial and festivities accompanying a formal entry by a ruler or his representative into a city in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period in Europe...
of King Henry II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
into Paris in 1549. Artists were commissioned to construct elaborate monuments, mostly temporary, along his route, from the Port Saint-Denis to the palais de la Cité, passing by le Châtelet, the pont Notre-Dame and the cathedral. The fountain was placed on the site of an earlier fountain dating to the reign of Philip II of France
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
, against the wall of the Cemetery of the Innocents
Saints Innocents Cemetery
The Saints Innocents Cemetery is a defunct cemetery in Paris that was used from the Middle Ages until the late 18th century. It was the oldest and largest cemetery in Paris and had often been used for mass graves...
, at the corner of rue Saint Denis
Rue Saint-Denis (Paris)
Rue Saint-Denis is one of the oldest streets in Paris. Its route was first laid out in the 1st century by the Romans, and then extended to the north in the Middle Ages. From the Middle Ages to the present day, the street has become notorious as a place of prostitution...
(where the King's procession passed) and rue aux Fers (today's rue Berger), with two facades on one street, one facade on the other. It was meant to be not only a fountain but also a grand reviewing stand for local notables; it resembled the walls of a large residence, with water taps along the street at the street level, and stairway up to the loggia on the upper level, where officials stood on the balcony to greet the King. Its original name was the Fountain of the Nymphs.
Once the procession had passed, the structure became a simple water fountain for the neighborhood, with taps, ornamented with lion heads, permanently trickling water. The upper floor of the fountain was eventually turned into a residence, with windows and a chimney.
In 1787, for sanitary reasons, the cemeteries of Paris were moved outside the city walls, and the former cemetery of the Church of the Saints-Innocents, against whose wall the fountain stood, was transformed into a market square, the Marché des Innocents. The fountain was scheduled for destruction. It was saved largely by the efforts of writer Quatremere de Quincy, who wrote a letter to the Journal de Paris urging the preservation of "A masterpiece of French sculpture." The fountain was moved to the middle of a large basin in the market, raised on a stone pedestal decorated with four lions and four basins. The sculptor Augustin Pajou
Augustin Pajou
Augustin Pajou was a French sculptor, born in Paris. At eighteen he won the Prix de Rome, and at thirty exhibited his Pluton tenant Cerbère enchaîné .-Selected works:...
was commissioned to create a fourth facade for the fountain, in the same style as the other three, so that it could be free-standing.
Because of the poor water supply system of Paris, the fountain produced only a small flow of water. Under Napoleon Bonaparte, a new aqueduct was constructed from the River Ourcq, and finally the fountain gushed water, in such abundance that it threatened the sculptural decoration. The smaller bas-reliefs at the base of the fountain were removed in 1810 and placed in the Musée du Louvre in 1824.
In 1858, during the Second French Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
of Louis Napoleon, the fountain was moved one more time to its present location on a more modest pedestal in the middle of the square; and six basins of pouring water, one above the other, were added on each facade.
Architecture
Pierre LescotPierre Lescot
Pierre Lescot was a French architect active during the French Renaissance, "the man who was first responsible for the implantation of pure and correct classical architecture in France." He was born in Paris....
(1510-1578), the architect of the fountain, was responsible for introducing classical models and French Renaissance
French Renaissance
French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
architecture into Paris. Francis I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
named him chief architect of the Palais du Louvre
Palais du Louvre
The Louvre Palace , on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois...
, and over the following years he transformed the building from a medieval castle into a Renaissance palace. He worked together with Jean Goujon on the decoration of two facades of the Cour Carrée of the Louvre.
The architecture of the fountain was inspired by the nymphaeum
Nymphaeum
A nymphaeum or nymphaion , in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs....
of ancient Rome, a style of building or monument found throughout the Roman empire, decorated with statuary of nymphs, tritons
Triton (mythology)
Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the big sea. He is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, whose herald he is...
and other water deities, and usually used to protect a fountain or spring.
Sculptural decoration
In 1547 Jean GoujonJean Goujon
Jean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.-Biography:His early life is little known; he was likely born in Normandy and may have traveled in Italy...
(1510-1572) became the court sculptor for Henry II, and the fountain was one of his first important commissions. In the same year he made illustrations for the French translation of the book of architecture by Vitruvius
Vitruvius
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ....
, one of the major classical sources of the architecture of the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
and the French Renaissance
French Renaissance
French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
. Later he worked again with Pierre Lescot on the bas-reliefs for the Cour Carrée of the Louvre Palace.
Though he was the court sculptor of Henry II, Goujon was a Protestant, and he was forced to go into self-exile in Italy during the French Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
, when Henry II began serious persecution of Protestants in France.
Goujon was one of the first French sculptors to take his inspiration from the sculpture of ancient Rome, particularly the bas-relief sculptures on Roman sarcophagi
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
. The nymph
Nymph
A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing;...
and triton
Triton (mythology)
Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the big sea. He is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, whose herald he is...
on one of the fountain panels (see illustration) resembled a Roman sarcophagus in Grottaferrata, which was one display when Goujon was in Rome, and which was drawn by many artists in the 16th century. The Triton’s hair resembled that in an ancient statue of The River Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
discovered in Rome in 1512.
Goujon’s work on the fountain was also inspired by the Italian artists who had come to work for Francis I at the Château de Fontainebleau
Château de Fontainebleau
The Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards...
, Rosso Fiorentino
Rosso Fiorentino
Giovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italian Mannerist painter, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school.-Biography:...
(1495-1540) and Francesco Primaticcio
Francesco Primaticcio
Francesco Primaticcio was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France.-Biography:...
(1504-1570). The nymph and sea dragon on the fountain had the same pose as nymph of Fontainebleau, by Rosso, in the Galerie François I of the chateau, and the female forms of the nymphs, with their elongated bodies, narrow shoulders, and small, high breasts, resembled the idealized female figures of Primaticcio.
Goujon’s own personal contribution was to add a decorative swirling movement to the sculptures, with undulating drapery and curling scrolls made of sea shells and the tails of sea creatures.