Art in America- ONE NIGHT IN Rome, in the summer of 1632, an expat French painter named Valentin de Boulogne stumbled home after a night of drinking. The evening was warm despite the hour, and Valentin decided to refresh himself by jumping fully clothed into the Fontana del Babuino, just down the street from Piazza di Spagna (the fountain, still in operation, was under the window of Valentin’s rival, Nicolas Poussin; one wonders if he was trying to send a message). An aging galant, known as “Loverboy” to his friends, Valentin was really too old for that sort of thing: he emerged from the water shivering; the chill became a fever, and a few days later Valentin de Boulogne was dead at forty-one. – read more
