VWP9+QG Petrodvortsovy District, Saint Petersburg, Russia
In the center of each of the four parterres into which the Monplaisir Garden is divided, Peter intended to install the "Bells" fountains, adorned with gilded sculptures. These water jets were created between 1721 and 1723 according to Miketti's drawings, simultaneously with the central fountain "Sheaf." The weathered lead statues were replaced with bronze ones in 1817. Wax models for them were made by Martos from casts kept in the Museum of the Academy of Arts.
The fountain in the northwest parterre of the Monplaisir Garden is decorated with a sculpture of the young god Apollo, called "Apollino," which is a copy of an antique original from the 4th century BC. To the east lies a parterre whose center features a statue of Psyche—a copy of the original created by the Italian sculptor of the Classicism era, Antonio Canova (1757–1822). The sculpture "Faun with a Kid" is a copy of an antique original from the 1st century BC and adorns the southeast parterre of the garden. Opposite, in the southwest parterre, stands "Bacchus"—a copy of a work by Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570), an Italian sculptor and architect of the High and Late Renaissance. The fountains differ not only in sculpture but also in their bases: two pedestals are shaped like vases with relief acanthus leaves, while the other two resemble columns with fluting—vertical grooves or channels on the column shaft. The pedestals were designed by Miketti.
Water rises through pipes hidden inside the pedestals. Discs with rounded edges are fixed under the sculptures on the pedestals. As water slides off them, it forms transparent water bells, which is why the fountains were named in the French manner "Cloches"—"Bells."
The statues saved during the Great Patriotic War have survived to this day. Their pedestals, stolen by German troops, were recreated in the postwar period.
Sources:
https://peterhofmuseum.ru/objects/peterhof/fontani_kolokola
