[Flickr user Anne G]
The Court of Neptune Fountain is more public art and less memorial. It's located at the Library of Congress, which might make it less hidden, but it's still relatively unknown. The sculptures and niches in which they reside have no shortage of details. Sculptor Roland Hinton Perry made the bronze statue of King Neptune, the Roman mythological God of the Sea, between 1897-1898. Beneath Neptune are bronze sculptures of his sons, the tritons, blowing conch shells like horns. In the two adjacent niches are bronze sculptures of water nymphs on horseback and inside the niches are reliefs of dolphins and stalactites (yes, like in caves). As for what actually sprays water for the fountain portion: bronze sculputres of one serpent, two turtles and a frog. It's an interesting visual that's not like many of the other sculptures or monuments near the Capitol.
· The Court of King Neptune Fountain [Wikipedia]
· The Court of Neptune Fountain, (sculpture) [SIRIS]
· All Hidden Memorials [CDC]