Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain
Dublin Core
Title
Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain
Subject (Topic)
Allegorical art
Public art
Sculpture
United States--Rhode Island--Providence
Public art
Sculpture
United States--Rhode Island--Providence
Subject (Name)
Bajnotti, Carrie Brown, 1841-1892
Subject (Object)
Commemorative sculpture
Description
The Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain sits atop an elevated, circular patch of grass, enclosed by a rounded concrete curb. Around this grassy area wraps a red brick path originating from each of Burnside Park’s six points of ingress. The paths converge to a circular patio, which wraps around the fountain and offers wooden benches for taking in the fountain—landscape architecture which produces the fountain as the rightful center of the park. Around the patio trees provide shades and present the Memorial’s space as a sort of clearing in the woods.
The granite basin itself is made up of sixteen curved units of granite, grouped into sets of four that converse around geometrically-ornamented plinths to create a circular basin. The upper inside of this basin is outfitted with roughly 234 spray outlets, which aim their streams at the Fountain’s centerpiece: a cluster of five intertwined bronze figures atop a rocky plinth. The figures support a smaller bronze water basin, decorated by intricate foliate and fish detailing, with a bronze finial in the center, out of which some ten-odd streams of water shoot into the air.
The central group of figures represents the struggle of life, which Yandell emphatically distinguished from the struggle for life: the former is the struggle for mere existence, while the latter is the struggle of the soul against its earthly limitations and circumstance. This tableau of the struggle of life is composed of five figures, each with a different symbolism: a human woman representing life, three male figures who embody earthly tendencies, and a winged-angel who represents the soul and who drapes the group with the mantle of truth cascading from her shoulders.
In the cluster of forms, the soul (represented by the angel) tries to break from the three male bodies of earthly tendency, which cling to her unrelentingly—muscles taught as they press back her body and weight it down to the stone plinth, representing earthly life. The human woman seems to be sitting on the flowing mantle of the angel, holding onto or propelling forward her wings. As she sits, the human woman is almost entirely obscured with the exception of her legs and lower torso (though her pelvis is modestly covered by what seems to be another fold of the angel’s mantle). Obscuring the woman is one of the three men, who has wrapped himself around her body, effectively forcing her to cradle him while his knees impede the angel’s forward movement. Further, all of the figures are naked with the exception of the angel, whose nipples nevertheless show through her thick bronze mantle.
The granite basin itself is made up of sixteen curved units of granite, grouped into sets of four that converse around geometrically-ornamented plinths to create a circular basin. The upper inside of this basin is outfitted with roughly 234 spray outlets, which aim their streams at the Fountain’s centerpiece: a cluster of five intertwined bronze figures atop a rocky plinth. The figures support a smaller bronze water basin, decorated by intricate foliate and fish detailing, with a bronze finial in the center, out of which some ten-odd streams of water shoot into the air.
The central group of figures represents the struggle of life, which Yandell emphatically distinguished from the struggle for life: the former is the struggle for mere existence, while the latter is the struggle of the soul against its earthly limitations and circumstance. This tableau of the struggle of life is composed of five figures, each with a different symbolism: a human woman representing life, three male figures who embody earthly tendencies, and a winged-angel who represents the soul and who drapes the group with the mantle of truth cascading from her shoulders.
In the cluster of forms, the soul (represented by the angel) tries to break from the three male bodies of earthly tendency, which cling to her unrelentingly—muscles taught as they press back her body and weight it down to the stone plinth, representing earthly life. The human woman seems to be sitting on the flowing mantle of the angel, holding onto or propelling forward her wings. As she sits, the human woman is almost entirely obscured with the exception of her legs and lower torso (though her pelvis is modestly covered by what seems to be another fold of the angel’s mantle). Obscuring the woman is one of the three men, who has wrapped himself around her body, effectively forcing her to cradle him while his knees impede the angel’s forward movement. Further, all of the figures are naked with the exception of the angel, whose nipples nevertheless show through her thick bronze mantle.
Creator
Yandell, Enid, 1869–1934
Source
Photograph sources:
A 1906 View of the Carrie Brown Bajnotti Fountain, Providence Journal, Nov. 5, 2021; Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain, Library of Congress, Jul. 27, 2018; The Woman Who Lives Downtown, Marrisa Faerber (Brown University); The Fountain Lit Up At Nighttime, Conserve ART™; The Fountain Up Close, Conserve ART™.
Date
Unveiled: June 26, 1901
Cast: 1900
Cast: 1900
Contributor
Architectural firm: Morris, Butler & Rodman; Foundry: Gorham Manufacturing Company; Donor: Count Paul Bajnotti.
Rights
City of Providence, City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Visual Arts-Sculpture
Coverage
Burnside Park, 40 Kennedy Plaza, Providence, Rhode Island, 02903
Alternative Title
The Carrie Brown Memorial Fountain
Bajnotti Fountain
Bajnotti Fountain
Has Part
Base Text:
ERECTED AD MDCCCC A GIFT TO
HONOR THE MEMORY OF CARRIE MATHILDE
DAVGHTER OF THE LATE NICHOLAS BROWN
OF PROVIDENCE – FROM HER HVSBAND
PAVL BAJNOTTI OF TVRIN, ITALY
ERECTED AD MDCCCC A GIFT TO
HONOR THE MEMORY OF CARRIE MATHILDE
DAVGHTER OF THE LATE NICHOLAS BROWN
OF PROVIDENCE – FROM HER HVSBAND
PAVL BAJNOTTI OF TVRIN, ITALY
Extent
192 in. (H) (487.68 cm)
Medium
Bronze and granite
Bibliographic Citation
“MISS YANDELL.” Harper’s Bazaar 32, no. 32 (1899): 671–.
Rights Holder
Renée Ater, Brown University
Geolocation
Citation
Yandell, Enid, 1869–1934, “Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain,” Commemorative Works of Providence, accessed April 27, 2025, https://commemorativeworks.artculturetourism.com/items/show/6.