Naixement de Venus

Naixement de Venus stands at the centre of the monumental cascade in Barcelona’s Parc de la Ciutadella. White marble shows Venus upright, arms raised, above two reclining naiads and a large shell. The group rises from irregular rocks, where the cascade’s first jet emerges.

Venanci and Agapit Vallmitjana modelled the composition, while Eduard B. Alentorn carried out its realisation. Josep Fontseré designed the surrounding multi-level fountain and placed the figures as its visual focus. Four hippocamps rear on the level below, shaped with horse forelegs and fish tails. Their arrangement adapts the rearing bulls of Henri Espérandieu’s cascade in Marseille, rather than illustrating Venus’s birth directly. Frontality keeps the central figures legible from the base, while Venus’s windblown hair adds movement.

The goddess lifts her head slightly and lowers her gaze, as though awakening above the water. Her silhouette stands against the sky within the triumphal arch, contrasting with the compact naiads and shell.