Fountain of the Amorini, Villa Borghese
Rudolph Ruzicka American, born Czechoslovakia
Related author Fanny Davenport Rogers MacVeagh American
Not on view
Ruzicka here describes a fountain in Rome's Villa Borghese Gardens centered on Cupids graping a dolphin and a frog. This proof is one of 43 wood engravings that the artist made to illustrate "Fountains of Papal Rome," 1915 where it appears on page 191. Other images of fountains in the gardens are Bernini's "Fountain of the Sea-horses" (MMA proof, 18.25.12), "Fountain with a Nymph" (MMA proof, 18.25.32), and "Fountain before a statue of Esculapius" (MMA proof, 18.25.31).
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."
