The inscription (1926) is carved on the lower part of each of the four columns that were erected around the central basin of the garden-fountain of Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini.

The inscription is carved in Roman square capitals and is part of a recognizably Fascist decoration that includes fasces along the columns, imperial eagles over them, and the acronym SPQR carved on the basements. The axes of the fasces originally bore the profile of Mussolini; they were destroyed after the fall of Fascism.  

The inscribed words underline the link Fascists perceived between ancient Roman values and Fascist ideology. They derive from an ancient Roman fresco (dated first half of 4^th century), the so-called ‘Dea Barberini’. While it originally represented Venus, it was reinterpreted as the Goddess Rome after its rediscovery in 1655. Additionally, the inscription Virtus, honor, imperium was added (or maybe restored) on the plinth of her throne (Sapelli 2000). Under Fascism, the words were also included in a bronze medal that municipal employees donated to Filippo Cremonesi as first governor of Rome on 30 December 1925 (Diebner 2018: 458).

The garden-fountain was commissioned by the Governorate from the architect Raffaele de Vico (1881–1969) who was assisted by the sculptor Ermenegildo Luppi (1877–1937). The work was inaugurated 28 October 1926.

Bibliography

Ciampi, Nello. 1927. ‘La fontana di Piazza Mazzini’. Capitolium 3 (4): 197–200.

De Vico Fallani, Massimo, and Isa Belli Barsali. 1985. Raffaele de Vico e i giardini di Roma. Florence: Sansoni, 69–71.

Diebner, Sylvia. 2018. ‘Il ‘giardino-fontana’ a Piazza Mazzini (Roma)’. In Di Bisanzio dirai ciò che è passato, ciò che passa e che sarà». Scritti in onore di Alessandra Guiglia, edited by Silvia Pedone, Andrea Paribeni, 453–66. Rome: Bardi Edizioni.

Gawlik, Ulrike, Massimo De Vico Fallani, and Simone Quilici. 2017. Raffaele De Vico: i giardini e le architetture romane dal 1908 al 1962. Florence: Olschki, 167–76.

Mastrigli, Federico. 1928. Acque, acquedotti e fontane di Roma. Vol. 2. Rome: Pinci, 473–77.

Sapelli, Marina. 2000. ‘Affresco con Venere seduta integrata come Roma (cd. “Dea Barberini”)’. In Aurea Roma. Dalla città pagana alla città cristiana, edited by Serena Ensoli and Eugenio La Rocca, 428–29. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.

Antonino Nastasi