The '' Fountain of Neptune '' makes good use of contrasts . The God of the Sea is arranged in a classical , static pose . Yet below him the figures of the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis writhe around and draw back in terror . Scylla and Charybdis were the names of rocks near the harbour of Messina ; as they had wrecked so many ships , they came to be personified by sea monsters . Neptune 's act of warding off these destructive forces demonstrates his power and his protection of the city . This work was especially influential in Florence , which had an affection of colossal statuary , and it likely influenced designs for Ammanati 's '' Neptune Fountain '' in the Piazza della Signoria . Florentine fountains excelled in designing fountains with many small thin elegant jets of water , even when there was enough water to have a large geyser . Montorsoli carried this Florentine tradition of having smaller , elegant jets , and judging from a design of his in the Uffizi he used eight of them for his design for the Neptune fountain . The '' Fountain of Neptune '' was finished in 1557 . In Messina he also realized the St Lorenzo Church ( from 1552 , destroyed in the earthquake of 1783 ) , the '' Lantern Tower '' ( 1555 ) and the '' Apostolate '' within the Cathedral ( completed in 1555 , destroyed several time by fires and earthquakes , and rebuilt )
earthquake of 1783
1783 Calabrian earthquakes
Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli