The fountain of Neptune is the first public fountain in Florence, it was completed in 1575 and rise in piazza della Signoria, (read this post about Piazza della Signoria!) just in front of Palazzo Vecchio, in the heart of the public life of Florence.
Some years before, Cosimo I de’ Medici assigned the work to Bartolomeo Ammannati, who realized a big representation of the Florentines dominion over the sea (Cosimo had just founded the seaport of Livorno).


The statue is made of whie Carrara marble and it’ quite big, so the Florentines call him “il Biancone”, that means “the big white”. Under Neptune there are his horses, and then a lot of more bronze statues representing sea gods, satyrs, and marine creatures.
During the years this fountain had bad luck: Florentines never liked it too much, it had been used as a basin for laundry, a satyr had been stolen during 1830 carnival, and had been damaged and vandalized several times.

But Biancone still resist!

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