Fountain in the Piazza Farnese
Rudolph Ruzicka American, born Czechoslovakia
Related author Fanny Davenport Rogers MacVeagh American
Not on view
We here are shown one of a pair of fountains that the Farnese family installed in front of their palace in Rome in 1612. Huge granite tubs were brought from the Baths of Caracalla, placed within low surrounding basins, and vases added crowned with the family emblem of the fleur de lys. This is a proof of one of 42 wood engravings that Ruzicka made to illustrate "Fountains of Papal Rome," 1915, where this image appears on page 71. The artist also made a smaller companion image showing both fountains (MMA, proof, 18.25.40).
Ruzicka went to Rome in 1913 with the manuscript of Mrs. Charles MacVeagh's "Fountains of Papal Rome" in hand as a guide. When published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York in 1915 the book contained fourteen full-page images and twenty-nine page headings and vignettes. The artist later described the book as a "quite remarkable work...still the most authoritative book there is on the subject in the English language."
