The history of the unique Latona fountain goes back to the reign of Louis XIII, who had an oval-shaped pond dug out in the garden of his small hunting lodge. His son, Louis XIV converted the lodge into the Palace of Versailles and the pond took the shape of the Latona fountain.
The first stage of the construction of the fountain, which lasted over 20 years, was inaugurated in 1666, with six small ‘bubbling’ features around a central spout. The following year the Marsy brothers, Gaspard and Balthazar, were commissioned to carve figures of amphibians and reptiles to decorate the fountain and they took on a series of commissions for almost all the sculptures of the fountain. Apart from that, they also produced one of the four fountains of the Seasons (Bacchus), the bronze giant Encelade for the grove named after it and one of the groups of the Horses of the Sun.
For a few years those animal figures gave the fountain the name of the Frog fountain. Installed over the twenty jets around the edge, twenty frogs cast in lead, spouted water towards the centre of the basin. Other than the frogs, twenty-four turtles and lizards also decorated the two ponds of the parterre.
In 1668, the decision was made to make the Frog fountain one of the highlights of the myth of Apollo, with the aim of decorating the Garden to sing the glory of the Sun King. Accordingly, the fountain was dedicated to the legend of Latona, as depicted by Ovid in his ‘Metamorphoses’
Inspired by The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid, Latona’s fountain illustrates the story of Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, protecting her children from the insults of the peasants of Lycia and pleading to Jupiter to avenge her. Latona, also known as Leto in Greek mythology, was the daughter of the Titan couple Coeus and Phoebe. Her beauty attracted Jupiter, the King of the gods, and she became conceived with a twin by him. This infuriated Juno, the wife of Jupiter and she exiled Latona from the universe. Helpless Latona had no other way, but to start her endless wandering across the Earth to find a place to give birth to her children. At last, she found her temporary refuge on the island of Delos, where she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. However, she had to flee once again to escape from the fury of Juno and arrived in Lycia. There she saw a pond of clear water, around which the local peasants were busy gathering rushes and algae.
As she was exhausted and thirsty, Latona approached the pond to drink from the pond. But, the peasants vehemently objected and forbade her from drinking from the pond. Despite her pathetic requests, they were unmoved and ordered Latona to leave the place at once. As if that was not enough, they rushed into the pond and trampled on the bed with their feet to make the water muddy. Helplessly, Latona looked up, raised her hands towards the sky pleading to Jupiter and cursed the peasants to live forever in the slime of the pond. The curse started to work immediately, as the metamorphosis of the peasants began and finally they became frogs and lizards.
The Marsy brothers were again given a new commission for sculptures. The six lead figures of the half-human and half-frog peasants, at more or less advanced stages of their metamorphosis, were created by Balthazar, the younger brother and were installed on the six pre-existing bubbling features in 1669.
On the other hand, Gaspard, the elder brother, executed the marble sculpture group of Latona and her Children. This group was installed one year after, in 1670 in the centre of the basin. Latona was placed in the centre of the fountain and on the same level as the other sculptures, on a little stone island decorated with reeds and rocks. Unlike today, she was facing the Palace at that time.
However, this initial layout was modified by Jules Hardouin-Mansart between 1687 and 1689, when the bright marble statue of Latona was installed on a marble pyramid with four tiers and turned her back to the Palace to face the horizon. During the same time, the figures of lizards and turtles were placed at the ground level of the fountain, the peasants undergoing metamorphosis and frogs were placed on the first tier of the pyramid. The frogs were also installed on the next two tiers, while the imposing statue of Latona was placed on the summit, dominating the aquatic fauna cast in gilded lead.
It is considered that the Latona fountain signifies the combined glory of Louis XIV and his emblem the sun, embodied in the figure of Apollo.