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Introduction
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The 24 marble statues of the middle
basin
The
middle basin is composed of several panels without decoration. On each
of the 24 angles where the panels meet there is a small statue sculpted
out of Carrara white marble. It is a gallery of statues that presents
biblical personages, symbolic figures in addition to real and mythical
people of the history of Perugia and of the world. Some of these sculptures
represent well established typological figures—as Moses, David, Melchizedek
and John the Baptist who pre-figure or anticipate Christ. Others are figurae
in malo—as Salomé and the Traitor cleric (figure 12)—or
figurae in bono, as St. Ercolano, the good cleric (figure 6), etc.
The names of the statues with a brief caption are given below.
The viewing of the middle basin sculptures should begin, again on the
side of Palazzo Vescovile, from the statue of St. Peter and proceeding
counterclockwise. Thus the last statue of the cycle will be that of Victory.
(Click on an image to see
a larger view)
Statue
1 - Saint Peter
 The
most important of the 12 Disciples and the reputed author of two
of the Epistles. He is recognized in the early Christian church
as the leader of the disciples and by the Roman Catholic church
as the first of its unbroken succession of popes. Peter, a fisherman,
was called to be a disciple of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.
He received from Jesus the name Cephas. While in Jerusalem he was
imprisoned by Herod, but was visited by an "angel of the Lord
...and his chains fell off his hands". So Peter made his escape
and "went to another place" (Acts 12, 17). He went
first to Antioch and founded the bishopric of Antioch; then in c.
55 A. D. he went to Rome where, a few years later later (about 64
A. D.), was crucified. |
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Statue
2 - The Church
 The
word "Church", in its original etymology (ecclesia),
means the aggregation or assembly of Christian believers, living
and dead, headed by Jesus Christ who founded it in the Apostles.
The head of the Roman Church is the head of the Apostles, bishop
of Rome and Pope, and the representative of Christ on earth. The
figure holds in her hands a building, the place of the assembly,
which is also called ecclesia or church. (See also Statue
3 - Rome).
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Statue
3 - Rome
 The
Capital
of Italy and of the Roman Empire. Site of Vatican City, seat of the
authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome saw the Apostles Paul
and Peter, Luke and Mark.
Originally all bishops were independent in their own home town, but
soon Rome, Antioch and Alexandria took precedence over the other cities.
Gradually the legend of the Roman's bishop preeminence spread throughout
and Rome became the only apostolic bishopric in the West—obviously
because of the Apostle Peter. Thus, for Christians, the Church and
Rome became in effect one entity.
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Statue
4 - Theology
Theology is the
field of study which treats of God, His attributes and His relations
to man and the universe. Here the statue is looking up into the
sky to try to comprehend God and His attributes as best as she can.
But her sight is human and hence limited. So she uses the palm of
her right hand to help focus on the object of her search. She will
then record all on the tablet she is holding with her left hand.
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Statue
5 - Saint Paul
 St
Paul was the apostle to the gentiles. He and St. Peter are the two
fundamental columns of the Christian Church. Paul was a Jew but, after
the episode of the blinding light while on his way to Damascus to
help suppress Christianity there, he converted to the new religion
and begun teaching it in his missionary journeys that took him to
so many places: Anthioc, Cyprus, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens,
Corinth, Ephesus etc. And back, more than once, to Jerusalem and Caesarea
where was arrested and kept in prison for two years. Since his father
was a Roman citizen, Paul appealed to Rome on his citizen's right.
He was sent to Rome and kept under house arrest from around 60 A.
D. till the time of his martyrdom a few years later. Roman Catholic
theology leans heavily upon him. |
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Statue
6 - The good cleric
The
good cleric of San Lorenzo is a local symbol that is faithful to
the local
Church and local people (For contrast see Statue 12)
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Statue
7 - San Lorenzo
 Roman
deacon. One of the most venerated martyrs of the Church, died in 258
A. D. He is highly praised for his role in the conversion of Rome.
After Christianity was outlawed in Rome, Pope Sixtus II and six deacons
were beheaded by order of Emperor Valerianus leaving Lorenzo as the
ranking Church officer in Rome. Thus he became the Keeper of the
treasures of the Church—including, of course, its documents.
For this reason, in addition of being represented as a deacon holding
a gridiron, or a bag of money, he is also portrayed as a deacon holding
a book, as he does here. The book is composed of the "ancient
parchments and the new", the old and the new Testaments,
and contains the divine Scriptures. San Lorenzo is the patron saint
of Perugia together with St. Ercolano. |
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Statue
8 - Chiusi
Chiusi's origin dates back to the first millennium before Christ.
In the 6th century BC Clevsin or Chamars (Chiusi's Etruscan names)
was one of the 12 most important cities in the Etruscan federation.
In the same Federation was also Perugia. So ties between the two
cities go back to time immemorial.
Chiusi is located about 30 miles from Perugia and situated in a
fertile valley.
Here, Lady Chiusi brings to Perugia a symbolic bouquet
of wheat.
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Statue
9 - Perugia
 Perugia
was founded by the Umbrians and her origins are pre-Etruscan. The
Etruscan arrived from the West and occupied a vast territory of Umbria,
especially the area to the right side of the Tiber—the river
that crosses vertically and centrally the Region. The Etruscans enlarged
the city and today Perugia still preserve a recognizable Etruscan
structure. (See also "Introduction").
By the time the Fountain was being built, Perugia was well established
as the most important and rich city in Umbria and in all the region
between Rome and Florence. In the statue, here, the queenly Perugia
is shown with the Cornucopia, symbol of plenty. |
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Statue
10 - Trasimeno
 Trasimeno,
the largest lake of the Italian peninsula, is about 10 miles west
of Perugia. The lake is fed by small streams and has an artificial
subterranean outlet to the Tiber River. Trasimeno is known in Roman
history as the scene in 217 BC of the defeat by Hannibal of the
Roman army.
The lake is also called the Lake of Perugia, and Perugians use it
as a bathing and fishing resort. Here it is figured as a Lady of
the Lake that brings symbolic gift of fish to Perugia.
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Statue
11 - St. Ercolano
 Bishop
of Perugia who organized the resistance of its citizens when the Goths.
led by Totila, besieged the city in 547AD. As a ploy to convince the
besieging Goths that the city was well able to withstand their siege,
Ercolano took the city's only remaining calf, fed on the last reserve
of grain, and threw it over the city walls. The Goths had in fact
already decided to lift the siege, when a young cleric named Laurentius
revealed Ercolano's ploy to Totila. Consequently Perugia was stormed
and burned; Ercolano was caught and beheaded. St. Ercolano is the
patron saint of Perugia together with San Lorenzo. |
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Statue
12 - Traitor cleric
 The
cleric who betrayed the efforts of Ercolano, the bishop of Perugia,
in trying to push back the Goths who had besieged the city in 547
A.D.
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Statue
13 - St. Benedict
 San
Benedict was born in Norcia, a city in the province of Perugia, in
480 AC. At 14 he left Norcia to go to Rome to study, but disliking
the confusion of the big city, withdrew to Subiaco to live as a hermit.
Then he found the Benedictine Order and its first monastery at Monte
Cassino. His Rule sets forth the central ideas of Benedictine monasticism,
which concentrates in the maxim: "pray and work". The statue, here,
portrays Benedict handing down the Rule to his first follower Mauro. |
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Statue
14 - The Baptist
 John
the Baptist was the son of a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem.
For a period he lived as a hermit in the desert of Judea. At the
age of thirty he began preaching on the banks of the Jordan against
the evils of the times and called people to penance and baptism.
He attracted large crowds, and Jesus came to him, he recognized
Him as the Messiah and baptized Him. John continued his preaching
in the Jordan valley. The Tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, became
fearful of the great power that John had over people, and had him
imprisoned. Herod was in a relation with Herodias, wife of his half-brother's
Philip, and when John denounced his adulterous marriage, John was
beheaded at the request of Salomé (see statue 17), instigated
by her mother Herodias. In the New Testament John is presented as
the last of the Old Testament prophets and the precursor of the
Messiah—whom he called "the Lamb of God".
This is why here
he is portrayed holding a lamb—the symbol of Christ.
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Statue
15 - King Solomon
 King
of the ancient Hebrews, son of David and famous for his wisdom. He
ascended to the throne very young. His kingdom extended from the Euphrates
River in the north to Egypt in the south His reign that lasted some
40 years was eminently peaceful. His crowning achievement was
the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. As his father, he too
was a poet and composed more than one thousand songs and some 3,000
proverbs. He wrote the Song of Songs, the Book of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.
He was in good terms with his neighbors, and one of the most celebrated
visits to him was that of the Queen of Sheeba, who came from southern
Arabia. Solomon's downfall came in his old age. He had taken many
foreign wives and allowed them to worship other gods. He placed heavy
taxation on the people and adversaries rose up against him. After
his death his large kingdom was divided into two parts.
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Statue
16 - King David
Father
of Solomon,
also king of the ancient Hebrews. His descendants, the House of
David, retained the kingdom for several centuries. Jesus was of
this royal seed. David was known for his skills as both a warrier
and a writer of psalms. He remains famous for the story of the fight
against Goliah, but perhaps more importatly he forced the Philistines
out of Israel, and then began fighting wars against Israel's neighbors
on the east bank of the Jordan, so that at the end of his 40 years
of reign Israel was a very strong and consolidated power. As a writer
of poetry, many psalms are ascribed to him.In the statue, here,
David, "the humble psalmist", is portrayed with the psalterium,
symbol of his poetical skill.
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Statue
17 - Salomé
Salomé was the daughter of Herod Philip and Herodias. Herodias longed
for social distinction, and accordingly left her husband and entered
into an adulterous union with Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and
her uncle. Antipas was Philip's half-brother. St. John the Baptist
rebuked Antipas for his adultery and incest and thus aroused the hatred
of Herodias, who by the dance of her daughter brought about the decapitation
of the Baptist. [The legend is narrated by both Matthew (xiv, 3-12)
and Mark (vi, 17-29)]. |
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Statue
18 - Moses
 The
Hebrew patriarch who led the Israelites out of Egypt and who was
their leader and lawgiver. He received the tablets of the
Law on Mount Sinai c. 13th century BC. Moses was thought to have
written the first five books of the Old testament (the Pentateuch).
Prophet and lawgiver, during the x-xiii centuries, Moses was considered
as both the founder of Judaism and as a figure of Christ (figura
Christi). In the statue, here, he is portrayed as a lawgiver
with the table of the Ten Commandments in his left hand, and with
the shepherd crook in his right hand, prefiguring the Good Shepherd,
that is Christ.
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Statue
19 - Matteo
When the Fontana
Maggiore was built Matteo was the mayor of Perugia. He was from Correggio,
about 10 mi. NE of Reggio Emilia. The custom of recruiting foreigners
to cover positions of responsibility was a very common practice in
Italy at this time. |
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Statue
20 - Archangel
The
Archangel Michael is mentioned in the Bible as a prince or warrior.
He was highly venerated during this time. Michael is the conqueror
of the hosts of hell, the lord and guardian of the souls, and the
patron saint and prince of the Church militant. In Christian tradition
and art, as he is in the statue here,
he is represented as young and severely beautiful, bearing
a sword and clothed in armor.
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Statue
21 - Eulistes
 Perugia,
following the trend widespread throughout Italy, chose a mythical
pre-Roman hero as her "founder": Eulistes. And a few years
after the construction of the fountain, the City decided to honor
her past deeds and her "founder"; and asked a poet, Boniface
from Verona—a man who had sought political asylum in the
Umbrian city from the persecution of Ezzelino da Romano—to compose
a poem for the purpose. So in 1293 Boniface finshed the nine-book
work in Latin hexameters titled Eulistea, where, in the explicit, the noble Eulistes
is called "Perusine conditor urbis",
the founder of the city of Perugia. (The poem was published in
1850 in "Archivio Storico Italiano"). |
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Statue
22 - Melchizedek
 Melchizedek,
King of Salem
and "priest of the most high God", first appeared in the
Bible's Old Testament bringing bread and wine to Abraham after his
victory in Genesis 14 over the four kings who had besieged Sodom
and Gomorrah and taken his nephew Lot prisoner. In turn, Abraham
gave Melchizedek as priest a tithe of ten percent of the bounty
that he took in battle. Psalm 110:4 names Melchizedek as representative
of the priestly line through which a future king of Israel's Davidic
line was ordained. Thus, in Christian belief, he typifies the priesthood
of the future Messiah.
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Statue
23 - Ermanno
 When
the Fontana Maggiore was built, Ermanno represtented the military
authority in Perugia. He was from Sassoferrato, in the Marches . And
hence, as Matteo from Correggio (see Statue 19), he was a recruited
foreigner |
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Statue
24 - Victory
The statue, here, is portrayed with a palm leaf in her hand, just
like the Greek goddess of victory was always represented in this
manner. The symbolism is very old, and goes back to pre-Christian
times. The symbol was adopted by the early Christians, and both
the palm tree and its leaf play a fundamental role in the Bible.
Here the statue
signifies not only the actual victory of Perugia over the nearby
cities, but the victory of man capable of bringing water to the
very hilltop of Perugia.
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Site created and maintained
by Gino Casagrande.
Copyright © 2002 - All Rights Reserved. Updated 30.IX..2005
Mail: Casagrande
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The
most important of the 12 Disciples and the reputed author of two
of the Epistles. He is recognized in the early Christian church
as the leader of the disciples and by the Roman Catholic church
as the first of its unbroken succession of popes. Peter, a fisherman,
was called to be a disciple of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.
He received from Jesus the name Cephas. While in Jerusalem he was
imprisoned by Herod, but was visited by an "angel of the Lord
...and his chains fell off his hands". So Peter made his escape
and "went to another place" (Acts 12, 17). He went
first to Antioch and founded the bishopric of Antioch; then in c.
55 A. D. he went to Rome where, a few years later later (about 64
A. D.), was crucified. 
St
Paul was the apostle to the gentiles. He and St. Peter are the two
fundamental columns of the Christian Church. Paul was a Jew but, after
the episode of the blinding light while on his way to Damascus to
help suppress Christianity there, he converted to the new religion
and begun teaching it in his missionary journeys that took him to
so many places: Anthioc, Cyprus, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens,
Corinth, Ephesus etc. And back, more than once, to Jerusalem and Caesarea
where was arrested and kept in prison for two years. Since his father
was a Roman citizen, Paul appealed to Rome on his citizen's right.
He was sent to Rome and kept under house arrest from around 60 A.
D. till the time of his martyrdom a few years later. Roman Catholic
theology leans heavily upon him. 
Roman
deacon. One of the most venerated martyrs of the Church, died in 258
A. D. He is highly praised for his role in the conversion of Rome.
After Christianity was outlawed in Rome, Pope Sixtus II and six deacons
were beheaded by order of Emperor Valerianus leaving Lorenzo as the
ranking Church officer in Rome. Thus he became the Keeper of the
treasures of the Church—including, of course, its documents.
For this reason, in addition of being represented as a deacon holding
a gridiron, or a bag of money, he is also portrayed as a deacon holding
a book, as he does here. The book is composed of the "ancient
parchments and the new", the old and the new Testaments,
and contains the divine Scriptures. San Lorenzo is the patron saint
of Perugia together with St. Ercolano.
Perugia
was founded by the Umbrians and her origins are pre-Etruscan. The
Etruscan arrived from the West and occupied a vast territory of Umbria,
especially the area to the right side of the Tiber—the river
that crosses vertically and centrally the Region. The Etruscans enlarged
the city and today Perugia still preserve a recognizable Etruscan
structure. (See also "Introduction").
Bishop
of Perugia who organized the resistance of its citizens when the Goths.
led by Totila, besieged the city in 547AD. As a ploy to convince the
besieging Goths that the city was well able to withstand their siege,
Ercolano took the city's only remaining calf, fed on the last reserve
of grain, and threw it over the city walls. The Goths had in fact
already decided to lift the siege, when a young cleric named Laurentius
revealed Ercolano's ploy to Totila. Consequently Perugia was stormed
and burned; Ercolano was caught and beheaded. St. Ercolano is the
patron saint of Perugia together with San Lorenzo.
San
Benedict was born in Norcia, a city in the province of Perugia, in
480 AC. At 14 he left Norcia to go to Rome to study, but disliking
the confusion of the big city, withdrew to Subiaco to live as a hermit.
Then he found the Benedictine Order and its first monastery at Monte
Cassino. His Rule sets forth the central ideas of Benedictine monasticism,
which concentrates in the maxim: "pray and work". The statue, here,
portrays Benedict handing down the Rule to his first follower Mauro.
King
of the ancient Hebrews, son of David and famous for his wisdom. He
ascended to the throne very young. His kingdom extended from the Euphrates
River in the north to Egypt in the south His reign that lasted some
40 years was eminently peaceful. His crowning achievement was
the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. As his father, he too
was a poet and composed more than one thousand songs and some 3,000
proverbs. He wrote the Song of Songs, the Book of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.
He was in good terms with his neighbors, and one of the most celebrated
visits to him was that of the Queen of Sheeba, who came from southern
Arabia. Solomon's downfall came in his old age. He had taken many
foreign wives and allowed them to worship other gods. He placed heavy
taxation on the people and adversaries rose up against him. After
his death his large kingdom was divided into two parts.
Salomé was the daughter of Herod Philip and Herodias. Herodias longed
for social distinction, and accordingly left her husband and entered
into an adulterous union with Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and
her uncle. Antipas was Philip's half-brother. St. John the Baptist
rebuked Antipas for his adultery and incest and thus aroused the hatred
of Herodias, who by the dance of her daughter brought about the decapitation
of the Baptist. [The legend is narrated by both Matthew (xiv, 3-12)
and Mark (vi, 17-29)]. 
When the Fontana
Maggiore was built Matteo was the mayor of Perugia. He was from Correggio,
about 10 mi. NE of Reggio Emilia. The custom of recruiting foreigners
to cover positions of responsibility was a very common practice in
Italy at this time. 
Perugia,
following the trend widespread throughout Italy, chose a mythical
pre-Roman hero as her "founder": Eulistes. And a few years
after the construction of the fountain, the City decided to honor
her past deeds and her "founder"; and asked a poet, Boniface
from Verona—a man who had sought political asylum in the
Umbrian city from the persecution of Ezzelino da Romano—to compose
a poem for the purpose. So in 1293 Boniface finshed the nine-book
work in Latin hexameters titled Eulistea, where, in the explicit, the noble Eulistes
is called "Perusine conditor urbis",
the founder of the city of Perugia. (The poem was published in
1850 in "Archivio Storico Italiano").
When
the Fontana Maggiore was built, Ermanno represtented the military
authority in Perugia. He was from Sassoferrato, in the Marches . And
hence, as Matteo from Correggio (see Statue 19), he was a recruited
foreigner 
