“During my stay at Villa Medici, I spent a lot of time near the Barcaccia in the Spanish Steps, and dreamt some nights near the Trevi Fountain (without Marcello Mastroianni, unfortunately!). I've always been partial to fountains, whether the Bassin de Latone in Versailles, the Fontaine de Neptune in Bologna or the Fontaine d'Actéon in Caserta, perhaps my favorite. I'll spare you a tourist guide that should include the Apennine Colossus and the Turtle Fountain. Villa d'Este... Artificial caves, “scherzi d'acqua”. Rocailles. Metamorphoses. In fact, if I love all these fountains, even the most academic ones, it's because they scare me. I love and fear their grandiloquence, their excess, their excess. I love the world they tell. Mouths wide open from which water gushes... They are rhapsodists. It's obviously the theatrical aspect, the artifice, to which I'm particularly sensitive.”
Hélène Delprat