Seite - 38 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

38 Nicolas Lamare Fountains aswaystations: anelement of urbanagency Fountainswerenot theonlybuildings to featureon their façades thehonoraryor commemora- tive inscriptions thatwereomnipresent in thecity.Nevertheless, fountainsconstituteacategory ofbuildingsapart in the townscape that shouldbeanalysed fromthepointofviewof theurban context.41WilliamMacDonaldclassified fountainsasoneof thecity’s ‘waystations’, alongwith exedras and porticoed courtyards. Like arches, they were urban breaks, marking the city’s framework,but conversely, theywere locatedalong theaxesandnotacross them.Thesemonu- ments, designed for people to stop and rest and offering a quiet space away from the hustle andbustleof thestreet,were ‘aspeciesofhalf-building, theirvolumes,partiallydefined, joining directlywith thoseofcontiguousstreetsandsquares, readytoreceivediversions fromthetraffic alongside’.42 FrancescoTomasellohasalready criticised this approach, arguing that it is a sim- plistic viewwhich belittles the dialectics and inventiveness of the urban project as a whole, where the richness of the solutions recalls the particularity of the projects and perspectives, and the relationship of the monument with the urban context. The example he gives of the Lacusof the theatre inLepcisMagna43 isquiteenlightening: itsconstructionsolvedtheproblem of theviewof the twoorthogonal andconvergingstreetsdominatedby themassivepresenceof the stage body. The fountain formeda cut-off panel and its oblique lateral returns finalised its organic connectionwith the theatre; the emphasis of the compositionwas placed on the large niche that gavedepthand thus resolved theperspective of the crossroads.44 Thus, fountains are indeedway stations, breaks in the urban landscape, especially when they are part of defined spaces, such as small plazas. The fountain near the northern baths in Volubilis blockedandembellishedapath inaccessibledue to thepresenceof theaqueduct and ofanancient tumulus,and thusclosedakindof square, later structuredby thearchofCaracal- la. InSabratha, the so-called ‘FlaviusTullusFountain’was theonlybuilding that occupied the place preceding the Antonine temple: it was thus highlighted on this large esplanade, while being placed on the side so as not to obstruct the view of the temple’s façade (Fig.8). Never- theless, fountains are buildings in their own right,well linked to the surroundingmonuments andwhose locationhasnotonlybeendefinedby theneed to fill anurban ‘void’.Moreover, the function of fountains as resting places, as for exedras, should not be overestimated.Their Na- iadsbabblingthroughall thestreetsofRome,wrotePropertius,45whilePlinytheYoungerevoked the most pleasing murmur of a little fountain in a room of his Tuscan villa,46 but the largest buildingswould havemade such awhirlwindnoise as tomake the voice rise, something that everyonecanexperience today in frontof theTrevi Fountain inRome.At thispoint, it isneces- sarytomentionSidoniusApollinaris,whoindicates that inthebaths,sodifficult is it toexchange words intelligibly, owing to the roar of the falling stream.47 However, answering the question of levels of fountain noise can only be done if we know the flow ofwater and theway inwhich 41 For examples inNorthern Italy, seeKreuz, this volume. 42 MacDonald 1986, 99–103. 43 Letzner 1999, 482no.384; Tomasello 2005, 37–57; Lamare 2019, 350–353no.30. 44 Tomasello 2005, 191f. 45 Prop. 2, 32, 15: et leuiter nymphis tota crepitantibus urbe (translationbyButler 1962). 46 Plin.Ep.5,6, 23:Fonticulus inhoc, in fontecrater, circasipunculipluresmiscent iucundissimummurmur (transla- tionbyMelmoth 1961). Vendries 2014, 213f., insists on thenecessity to take into consideration this noise ofwater inorder to imagine theatmosphereofRomangardens,andrecalls,moreover, thatLatin literaturegenerallyassoci- ates itwith the chirpingof birds and thereforewith anelement of appeasement. 47 Sid. Apoll. Epist. 2, 2, 9: quia prae strepitu caduci fluminismutuae uocumuicesminus intelliguntur (translation byAnderson 1956).