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'La Maggior Porcheria Del Mondo': Documents For Ammannati's Neptune Fountain, Felicia M. Else

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

The story of the creation of the Neptune Fountain on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence is long and tortuous. Scholars have drawn on a wealth of documentary material regarding the competition for the commission, the various phases of the fountain's construction, and the critical reception of its colossus, both political and aesthetic. A collection of unpublished letters at the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles offers a new perspective on the making of this major public monument. Sent by Bartolomeo Ammannati to the prvveditore of Pisa, they chronicle the artist's involvement in the procurement and transportation of marble from …