Medici Fountain restorations completed in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris

The Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden) in Paris, under direction of the Senate, undertook restorations to the Medici Fountain from June 2020 to December 2021. The statues have now been cleaned, the scaffolding around the statues and grotto has been removed, the repairs to the reticulated water system have completed, and the Mallard ducks have returned.

The Medici Fountain was built around 1630 under the commission of Marie de Medici, the wife of King Henry IV of France and mother of King Louis XIII of France. Many artists contributed to its design, including sculptor Francesco Bordini. It was first built in another location – at Marie’s palace – and was relocated to the Luxembourg Garden and renovated by the architect Alphonse de Gisors from 1864 to 1866.

In the grotto is the statue called ‘Polyphemis Surprising Acis and Galatea’ which was sculpted by Auguste Ottin, and added to the fountain in 1866. Polyphemis is sculpted in bronze, and the lovers Acis and Galatea are sculpted in white marble.

The chief architect for the 2020-2021 restoration was Damien Déchelette.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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