[5] The fountain represents a Moor, or African (perhaps originally meant to be Neptune), standing in a conch shell, wrestling with a dolphin, surrounded by four Tritons.

[1] Ludovico Rossi was the original stone-carver who created the basins in 1575 and later the balustrades, a row of column-like objects topped with a railing, made from travertine in 1577.

[1] Della Porta originally planned on incorporating a column in the center, but this was not completed and instead the centerpiece was a rock.

[1] This scrapped centerpiece was gifted from Pope Innocent to his sister-in-law, Olimpia Maidalchini, and was then used for her garden along River Tiber.

[1] In the final version of the fountain, Bernini took the shell from the original design then placed the triton wrangling a dolphin atop it.

[1] Part of Bernini’s inspiration for the stance of the triton came from the Pasquino, an Ancient Roman sculpture belonging to a pair of speaking statues.

[2] Bernini also crafted a terracotta model of the central figure of the fountain in 1653 to show Pope Innocent X.

[3] Andrew Butterfield draws attention to the fact that Bernini was heavily influenced by the classical style in this modello, specifically the works of the Pasquino, the Belvedere Torso, and the Laocoön.

[3][11] Weil notes that the modello for the Fountain of the Moor might have been more polished and complete to appease Pope Innocent X.

[11][12] The modello for the Fountain of the Moor is currently on display at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

[1] The central figure in the fountain is deemed a Moor, which is a term that was used to describe Africans who were not Christians and often Muslims.

[4] According to Bindman and Gates, there are no sources from the time of its creation that have specific accounts of Bernini referring to it as a “moor.”[4] There is no concrete proof that the triton was meant to be (sub-Saharan) African.

[4] In fact, Bernini just referred to the main figure as a “triton.”[4] Bindman and Gates state that all the symbolism, aside from the alleged African, only relate to the sea.