Fountain group with Fishermen and Shepherds

Roman art

The group, which only retains the block with the relief figures and the ancient attachment of the figures in the round, served as a decorative element on a fountain. On the block, between the crevices of the rock, are distinguishable elements of the pastoral world (a herd of goats watched by a shepherd, a snail, lizard and hare) and, in the part furrowed by waves, elements of the marine world (fish, octopuses, two boats with an oarsman and a fisherman). The aquatic element is also reflected in the central figures of Thalassa, the sea, and a semi-reclining river god. Three figures in the round can be distinguished on the rock: the one on the larger scale, interpreted in the modern restoration in the act of opening a shell, must probably have been a fisherman; the two at the top, on the other hand, must have been shepherds accompanied by goats. The group can be interpreted as a genre scene, a favourite type in late Hellenistic art, and taken up later by Roman art; in particular, the work can be stylistically dated to the Severan period.

Object details

Commentary

The group, which retains only the block with the figures in relief, the feet of the ancient standing figures in the round, the attachments of the legs of the two goats and part of the main seated figure, has had a number of elements added to it, including details in plaster; documented only after 1833 among the works in the Borghese collection, it is of unknown provenance.

On the block, between the crevices of the rock, is a herd of goats, watched by their shepherd, whose small figure sits on the rock to the left. The entire surface of the lower part of the monument is furrowed by waves reproducing a rough sea, in which fish and octopuses swim and two boats rock, each with an oarsman and a fisherman with rod and hook. On the front of the block, a half-naked woman with an oar and sea monster beside her, Thalassa, personification of the sea (feminine in Greek) emerges in the waves, and on the shore, opposite her, a semi-reclining river god with his elbow resting on the vase from which water flows; a hole near the god’s foot reveals the group’s function as a fountain. Among the reeds surrounding the god are a snail, lizard and hare, completing the rich pastoral-marine bestiary characteristic of idyllic paintings and reliefs, but also of sarcophagi and funerary monuments produced in the 3rd century CE.

Three figures in the round can be distinguished on the rock: the one on the larger scale, portrayed in the act of opening a shell, must probably have been a fisherman, whose fishing rod lies on the ground next to the basket filled with shells; the two above, on the other hand, may have been shepherds with goats.

Amelung proposed a mythical reading of the scene, as a setting for the love story of Polyphemus and Galatea, which was a favourite theme of Hellenistic poets, thus interpreting the seated figure as the Cyclops reaching out his hand to receive a message from his beloved, at the mercy of the waves. As has already been noted, however, there is little evidence to suggest that the seated figure is not an ordinary fisherman, although the nature of the object in his hand, perhaps a fish, is still uncertain.

The Borghese fountain can be placed within a series of similar monuments characterised by the grouping of figures in similar poses, such as the one from the excavations of the so-called “garden houses” in Ostia, with a fisherman seated on a rocky mass (Floriani Squarciapino 1952, figs. 1-2) and inspired by Hellenistic models. However, the work in question is distinguished by the numerous elements that characterise the marine and pastoral worlds amassed in the waves and on the cliff of the lower block. At the back of the block is a large cavity where the water conduit came out and which served as a reservoir (see also the fountain element with Pygmies attacked by crocodiles, hippopotami and crabs in the Museum of Split, from Salona, Floriani Squarciapino 1952, fig. 4).

The Borghese group can be interpreted as a genre scene, a favourite type in late Hellenistic art, later taken up by Roman art. Although it echoes distant Hellenistic prototypes in the pyramid formation, it can nevertheless be stylistically dated to the Severan period due to the chiaroscuro effects sought and obtained with the contrasts between the smooth surfaces of the bodies and the deep carving in the rocky mass.

Jessica Clementi