The famous Maria Theresa Square (Maria-Theresien-Platz) in Vienna is home to four fountains with tritons and nereids, of which one clearly includes a twin-tailed mermaid. map
The fountains are each at the center of one of the four rectangular garden areas that define the square.
This fountain depicts a Triton portrayed as an elderly man (with feet) on a conch shell being offered a strand of pearls by a twin-tailed mermaid. Created in Carrara marble by Austrian sculptor Anton Schmidgruber, it was unveiled in 1893.
The three sculptors
The four fountains were shared between three sculptors. Anton Schmidgruber (1837–1909) made the two facing the Ringstrasse. Edmund Hofmann von Aspernburg (1847–1930) made the one beside the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Hugo Haerdtl made the one beside the Naturhistorisches Museum.
All four fountains are referred to as Triton and Naiad fountains. In this fountain the female figure is the naiad (mermaid), whereas in the other three fountains the male figures are tritons (mermen with tails) and the female figures have human feet.
Commission and dates
The fountains were commissioned in 1887 and installed in the early 1890s. Sources give dates from 1890 to 1893. They stand on artificial rock of conglomerate stone, with circular basins around the marble figures.
Triton in myth
Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, is best known from Ovid's flood story (Metamorphoses 1.333–342). After Jupiter drowns nearly all of humanity, Neptune orders Triton to blow his conch to make the waters retreat.
References:
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria-Theresien-Platz
● The Mermaids of Earth coffee-table book: See page 64 in the book about this sculpture.
