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The Fontana del Putto (Fountain of the Putto), also known as the Fountain of Cupid, located in the centre of the Giardino del Teatro in Villa Pamphilj, was designed by the architect Andrea Busiri Vici using many reused figurative elements, which had belonged to various pieces of furniture in the villa that escaped destruction during the war in 1849.
The figure of the satyr stands out among them all, multiplied into four specimens of both sexes to support the upper bowl. At the top of the fountain Busiri Vici placed the ancient sculpture of a winged Cupid (stolen shortly after the villa was opened to the public), found in Neptune, which was added to the Pamphlilj collection and restored in August 1655 by the sculptor Adam Brefort.
The small statue stood in ideal continuity with the iconography of the nearby fountain of Venus. Venus' fountain in fact showed love celebrated as a fertilising force, but at the top of this fountain love ideally dominated the generative force of nature (satyrs) and turned hearts from uncontrolled instinct to more honest desires.
In addition to the raised basin, the articulated circular fountain has a large underground pool at the base and another central masonry basin; the latter is surmounted along the edge by 12 small pillars decorated with a lily on the top and masks on the sides, which pour water into the basins below, shaped like shells or rocaille.
