- Neptune's outstretched arm
- four sirens on dolphins
- four cherubs
- the coats of arms on the basin
01What it is
The Fontana del Nettuno stands in Piazza del Nettuno, the square that opens off Piazza Maggiore towards via Rizzoli. It was made in the 1560s, when Bologna was ruled by the popes: the structure was designed by the Sicilian architect Tommaso Laureti, and the bronzes are by the Flemish sculptor Giambologna.
The Bolognese call the statue il Gigante, the Giant.
02What to look at
Neptune himself, stretching one arm out over the city — a gesture of a god calming the waters, made for a city that had just brought fresh water into its center.
Below him, four sirens sit astride dolphins and squeeze water from their breasts, and four cherubs hold dolphins that spout. The pope's and the city's coats of arms are on the basin.
03A cleaned statue
The fountain was restored in the late 2010s, and the bronze now reads as bronze again rather than as the near-black it had become. Photographs from before and after look like two different statues.
04The sculptor is not from Bologna
Note Giambologna's name means "Giovanni of Bologna", but he was born Jean de Boulogne in Flanders and spent most of his working life in Florence, where most of his statues are. This fountain is the great exception — and the reason his Italian name is so often mistaken for a local one.