Fountain in Piazza Scossa Cavalli
Rudolph Ruzicka American, born Czechoslovakia
Related author Fanny Davenport Rogers MacVeagh American
Not on view
Ruzicka here describes a fountain that Carlo Maderno designed for the Piazza Scossacavalli near the Vatican (an historic square demolished in 1937 to construct the Via della Conciliazione). In 1957 the fountain was rebuilt in the Piazza S. Andrea della Valle opposite a church designed by Maderno, when its missing ancient upper basin had to be remade. This is a proof of one of 43 wood engravings that Ruzicka made to illustrate "Fountains of Papal Rome," 1915 where the image appears on page 21 near a large image focused on the upper basin (MMA proof, 18.25.11).
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."
