Detail of the statue of Neptune in the fountain with the same name (ISAL Photo Archive, photograph by Adele Simioli)
The Fountain of Neptune is on the south side of the complex of Desio and links the vast expanse of the lawn with the façade of the building. It was purposely situated on a telescopic optical perspective which connects these two very different elements. The fountain from which the marble sculpture of Neptune emerges, presents an elegant, fragmented perimeter that draws the shape of a poly-lobed rhombus and is characterized by an unusual type of basin, completely buried, which emerges from the level of the lawn at the height of its perimeter.
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The statue of Neptune, god of the sea and, therefore, typically associated with the enhancement of fountains in English landscape gardens, is a visual “surprise” that emerges from the water and turns to face the south façade of the villa. The god is in motion in a neo-baroque serpentine pose, inspired by the Bernini models and is precariously balanced on a slippery dolphin with an opened mouth on which the god stands. The dynamism of the virile body is accentuated by powerful muscles and amplified by the drapery, which emphasizes and embodies the movement. Along with many other monuments that beautify the park, the reference to the gods of Olympus should give guests a visible, important episode in the study of landscape projects, as food for thought for the visitors of the villa who strolled around the garden meditating on the classical past and the transience state of human construction and ruins, immersed in the eternity of the succession of natural cycles and the changing seasons, in other words a revival of the neoclassic.
