The Fontana Angelica in Piazza Solferino between allegory and mystery

Piazza Solferino is one of the most elegant spaces in central Turin, but for many visitors its name evokes above all a fountain. The Fontana Angelica, the work of the sculptor Giovanni Riva, was inaugurated around 1930 and has since become an obligatory stop on tours devoted to mysterious Turin. It is an interesting case, because it shows how a relatively recent work can attract to itself, within a few decades, an entire repertoire of symbolic interpretations.

The work and its author

The fountain consists of four bronze figures arranged around a basin. Two female figures occupy the highest part, while two male figures, set lower down, pour water from large shells or blow it out as if from instruments. The style is that of a cultivated figurative sculpture, attentive to the classical tradition and to the elegance of the early twentieth century.

The most widespread and least problematic reading recognises in it an allegory of the seasons: the female figures would represent spring and summer, the male ones autumn and winter. It is an ancient theme, which European art has rendered in countless variations, from Roman sarcophagi to medieval cycles of the months, and which suits a fountain well, a symbol of the flow of time and life. The fountain's very name, Angelica, has helped suggest an otherworldly aura, even though the figures have neither wings nor angelic attributes.

The esoteric readings

Alongside this interpretation, Masonic and esoteric readings spread in the later twentieth century. According to some authors, the two male figures would represent the pillars Jachin and Boaz, which the Bible places at the entrance to Solomon's Temple and which Masonic symbolism adopted as the emblem of the initiatory threshold. The female figures would then be guardians of a passage towards knowledge.

Others have seen in the orientation of the statues a reference to the solstices and equinoxes, or a coded message hidden in the figures' gestures. It must be said clearly that no known document proves an esoteric intention on the part of the sculptor or the patrons. These readings belong to the history of the work's reception, not to its origin. They spread, however, through walks devoted to mysterious Turin, which made the square a fixed stop on the triangle of white magic.

The symbolism of water

Regardless of the boldest hypotheses, the fountain shares in a deep and documented symbolism. In ancient traditions water is a principle of purification and renewal, and public fountains were often decorated with river gods, nymphs and allegories. The Fontana Angelica belongs to this long history, reinterpreting it in the language of its own time. In a city crossed by two rivers, the Po and the Dora, the theme of flowing, self-renewing water also has a natural civic resonance.

Visiting Piazza Solferino with this awareness makes it possible to appreciate two distinct levels. On one side there is the work of art, with its author, its date and its allegory of the seasons. On the other there is the legend, born of the desire to read secrets in stone and bronze. Keeping them apart takes nothing away from the fountain's charm, but restores its authentic identity.