Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.
Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.
Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.
Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.
Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.
Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.
Two anthropomorphic phallic columns with integrated fountain.

Fontana d’Italia

Artist(s)
Enzo Cucchi
Date
1993
Object Type
sculpture
Medium
bronze, granite, marble
Dimensions
700 x 460 cm
Collections
Outdoor Sculpture Collection
Accession
A1993.003
Tags

Enzo Cucchi unveiled Fontana d’Italia [Fountain of Italy] in May of 1993 following five years of planning. A painter and a sculptor, Cucchi is best known for his emotive paintings of elongated figures inspired by Christian imagery and early Etruscan Art, which can be seen in the soaring height of the Fontana. 

Cucchi envisions vessels and fountains as being the origin of the sculptural impulse and bronze as an enduring material for the presentation of a sculptural work. From a crevice in the face of each of the bronze columns, water emerges, trickling down the trunk, to be caught in the ear-like granite saucers below. Fontana d’Italia, one of seven fountains by Cucchi, is his first in North America. It was realized in Rome by master-artisan Otello Scatolini.

This piece was a gift from the artist to York University, demonstrating the relationship between the two which started in 1989 when Cucchi was an artist-in-residence at the University.