E nel marmo mise l'acqua e il fuoco

In 1559 Cosimo I de’ Medici announced a competition to create the first public fountain in Florence, in which the most important Florentine sculptors of the period participated: the winner was Bartolomeo Ammannati’s Neptune because it was considered the most significant in exalting the glorious maritime goals achieved in those decades by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The sculptural apparatus was completed and inaugurated on 24 June 1574. After two years of meticulous restoration, the sculptural group and the fountain were returned to the city with an inaugural concert curated by Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, focused on the evocative images dedicated to Ammanati’s extraordinary ability to dominate the sculptural material and to the genesis of Neptune and the ingenious system of waters that feed the fountain.