Ventura Rodríguez designed these four fountains to decorate what is now the Plaza de Murillo, between the Prado Museum and the Royal Botanical Gardens. The structure common to these four fountains is that of a circular vessel on which a carved column sits, with works alluding to the coat of arms of Madrid by means of bear heads; the column is crowned by a bowl on which a sculpture stands; two of the fountains feature tritons and the other two sea nymphs, each of which embraces a dolphin from where a jet of water spurts. In 1996, the tritons and sea nymphs were replaced by resin replicas due to their serious deterioration.

The fountains were part of the decorative project of the Salón del Prado. Their sculptors were Roberto Michel, Francisco Gutiérrez, the author of the Nereids, Alfonso Bergaz, who was responsible for the tritons, Narciso Aldebó, the architect of the columns, and José Rodríguez, tasked with the bear heads.

© Amador Toril