The Elephant and the Obelisk

On this little square stands a marble elephant with an Egyptian obelisk on its back, an idea Bernini came up with in 1667 and handed to his collaborator Ercole Ferrata to execute.

The obelisk turned up in the garden behind the church and turned out to date from the sixth century before Christ. Pope Alexander VII wanted it put on display, and Bernini dreamed up the base: an elephant as a symbol of strength carrying wisdom, with an inscription saying that a strong mind is needed to bear true knowledge.

The Dominican friars of the church next door had their doubts about the structure and insisted on a block of stone beneath the belly, which is still there today and drains all the movement out of the animal.

It pays to circle round to the back of the statue. The tail hangs off to one side, and the elephant stares with an unmistakably impatient look straight toward the monastery, something Romans have always read as Bernini's little comment on the people who commissioned him.

We cross the square toward the corner with Via dei Cestari and carry on to the university courtyard just around the bend.