Fontana delle Api

This small Baroque fountain by Bernini, set at a corner of Piazza Barberini, takes the form of a scallop shell adorned with three bees, emblems of the Barberini family who commissioned it in the early seventeenth century. Originally designed as a public trough where passers-by could drink, it was moved and reassembled at its present spot. Though modest beside its grander neighbour the Triton Fountain a few steps away, it shows Bernini's inventiveness at a small scale.