Hearing Fountain

The Audition fountain, surrounded by 7 castles on the shore, features the figure of a young man, half body, head bowed, right hand raised, throwing water from the ears and in the upper part a young man playing the zither, the singer Idito e the inscription: «QUI IN CITHARA PROPHETABAT SUPER CONFITENTES ET LAUDANTES DOMINUM», translated: «that sang to the sound of the zither, presiding over those who sang and praised the Lord».

The statue that crowns this third source represented Orfeu, later, renamed of Idito. As you can see, the statues are in harmony with the allegorized sense. According to the fable, when he played, he would silence all other sounds of nature.

The cartouche of the human figure with long hair, which sheds water by the ears, is framed by a set of scrolls, wings, and, in the lower plane, a bull’s head, which again appears on the pedestal of the basin, flanked by two heads of calf in profile.

The sense of hearing is symbolized in the source through the effigy of the bull, because it evokes the idea of power before which there is no resistance. It completes the symbolism of Orpheus’s zither whose charm of music to everyone and everything rendered it impotent.

One could go further and conjecture that this fountain, with its statues and animals, symbolizes the irresistible voice of Christ inviting the pilgrims to the kingdom of God.