mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
four rivers. He had done the dirty, thankless grunt work of diverting the
aqueduct and laying down the conduits. And now Bernini was to plunk
his frothy creation on top and have all the credit and glory. Several times
Borromini stormed into the pope’s presence screaming and stomping his
feet. Many people thought that the episode had so unhinged the emotionally
unstable Borromini that he would throw himself into the Tiber as the
most dramatic protest possible.
To create his fountain, Bernini first built the travertine base, into
which the obelisk was set in August 1649. He hired other sculptors to
create four river gods according to his specifications. It is debatable exactly
how much of the fountain Bernini carved. But he certainly created
the design and supervised construction from beginning to end.
The Four Rivers Fountain is a seventeenth-century wonder, a tourist
attraction to this very day. The center looks like a primeval rock from
which water gushes and the obelisk rises. At the bottom of the rock are
a horse, a lion, and a palm tree, writhing in theatrical contortions.
Around the edges of the basin sit the four river gods, twisting themselves
to better show their exaggerated muscles to admiring spectators.
The South American figure looks oddly African because Bernini
had never seen a native of South America; however, he had probably
seen Africans, as the 1650 census recorded thirteen of them living in
Rome (out of a population of 126,192), and many noble visitors brought
with them fashionable African child servants. Near the South American
figure is what is supposed to be an armadillo, but since there were
none of those living in Rome either, Bernini’s armadillo looks more like
a dragon. The Nile river god has his head covered with a drape, as if he
were inhaling menthol fumes for a head cold. But the drape indicated
that no one had seen the source, or head, of the Nile.
At the base of the fountain is the huge marble coat of arms of Pope
Innocent X, with the dove holding the olive sprig in its mouth. Art
aside, the propaganda statement was clear—the Pamphili family and
the Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme over all four continents.
On top of the fifty-four-foot obelisk was placed the Pamphili dove,
which represented the pope and the Holy Spirit triumphing over pagan
empires. Moreover, the living waters of the fountain symbolized
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