Ornamental Fountain of Los Delfines

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1787

In the centre of the La Alameda de la Marina promenade we find this Carrara marble fountain, which was once crowned with figures of three dolphins joined by their tails, a feature it no longer has and which gave it its name. 

This ensemble was made in the early 1780s in Genoa, Italy, by an unknown author.

The basin, hexagonal in plan, presents a simple decoration featuring recessed smooth mouldings alternating with convex bodies, like a vase, with projecting edges on the rim. The central column, with a triangular base, is decorated with exuberant motifs, highlighting gadroons, acanthus leaves, scrolls and hanging drapes, very much in the rococo style. The top of this shaft follows the same ornamental model: a cup composed of shells that served as a support for the main figure of the three dolphins acting as spouts with their heads resting and tails intertwined. 

This entire ornamental ensemble, a work showing the transition between a waning Baroque and the birth of an incipient Neoclassicism, is nothing more than a natural fantasy evoking the maritime and playful atmosphere of the garden it presided over. 

Today, the upper shells with their characteristic dolphins have been removed from this fountain, as well as the access steps at the base, which gave the whole ensemble a placid slenderness and cheerful presence.

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