Fountain of Neptune
Description
This famous fountain of the city (called by the local people al Żigànt, which means “the giant”) was born from the collaboration between the mannerist sculptor Giambologna, the foundryman Zanobio Portigiani and the architect Tommaso Laureti, and completed in 1566. The theme of Neptune, in the Sixteenth century, was in fact very popular, in Bologna too. The fountain was commissioned by Pier Donato Cesi to glorify the generosity and magnificence of the good government of Pope Pius IV. Neptune, which stretches his right hand against the wind almost as if he wanted to calm the waves, actually conveys a message of dynastic exaltation of Pope Pius IV, thus becoming the symbol of the political power of the Church over Bologna: as Neptune dominates the waters and dispenses wealth and fertility around him, the Pope dominates the world.
