TURTLE FOUNTAIN
Venue: Cranbrook House & Gardens
Location: Northeast of Cranbrook House
Turtle
Fountain is a
copy of Fontana della Tartarughe which stands in a piazza not far from
St. Peter’s in Rome. The
original fountain was designed to have four men sculpted in marble and holding
dolphins; but it was decided that was too clumsy, so the figures were
made in bronze with no dolphins. The rim was bare until 1658 when the famous
Baroque sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini added the turtles to the upper basin,
thus suggesting the new name.