Ammannati's Neptune Fountain as Public Ornament

This dissertation explores the first public fountain in Early Modern Florence, Bartolomeo Ammannati's Neptune Fountain. I approach the Neptune Fountain at its most fundamental level-as a visual and ideological manifestation of water and stone crafted for a specifically Florentine context. Each material is analyzed for its appearance and the historical circumstances of its creation and reception. In addition to expanding on secondary research, I also incorporate new primary source material, including unpublished manuscripts acquired by the Getty Research Center as well as contemporary Latin verses and compositions by Benvenuto Cellini. This study draws on the growing scholarly work on Cosimo's Florence and seeks to chronicle the range of activities that relate to the Neptune Fountain, from embittered rivalries to construction delays to the consumption of water in the city. In chapter one, "Biancone: Life of a Colossus," the long and contentious history of the Neptune centerpiece is discussed, a fate linked to the tradition of large-scale statuary carved from monolithic blocks of white Carrara marble. Chapter two, "Chariot and Basin: a Mixture of Marbles," deals with the creation of the chariot and basin, carved from marmo bianco and marmo mischio of Seravezza, and the difficulties faced by Ammannati in procuring and transporting these stones. In the third chapter, "Bronze, the Figural Link," I explore how the bronze statues, impressive for their quantity and quality, served as links between the viewer and fountain and how their subject matter reinforces the metaphor of the fountain as a conjunction between land and sea. Chapter four, "On Aqueducts," considers the broader historical context for Cosimo's aqueduct constructions, including the tradition of ancient Roman aqueducts, existing water systems in central Italian cities and villas, and Florence's own history of water supply out of which Ammannati's Neptune Fountain served as the ultimate public showpiece for this ambitious transformation of a complex urban network. In the conclusion, I explore the military overtones of the fountain and its relation to maritime empire.